Why New York City will never build another subway station

NY Post ^ | $ July 2020 | Reed Tucker

[DUMBGRUNT]

...“I called yesterday,” Plotch told me in March. “They said they’d start building it next year.”

Not only is the Second Avenue Subway unlikely to pick up construction again next year, continuing progress of the 8.5 miles of track running down Manhattan’s east side from 125th street to Hanover Square, it’s not particularly likely to be completed in many of our lifetimes

The Second Avenue Subway, which was originally meant to include 16 stations, so far only includes three — 72nd, 86th and 96th streets. But that 1.5-mile “stubway” alone cost $4.6 billion (from an original budget for the entire project of $335 million in the mid-twentieth century), making it by far the most expensive train track in world history.

...An estimated hundreds of millions could have been saved in labor costs — traffic wardens to control the flow of cars, for example — if the streets had simply been closed

The MTA also took pains to disrupt life on the Upper East Side as little as possible, which included keeping sidewalks and streets open during construction. (Plotch likens the process to renovating your apartment while there’s an engagement party going on.)

Union rules also added to the expense. Regulations required, for instance, that the tunnel-boring machine be manned by 25 people, even though just nine were required to run a similar machine in Spain.

At one point, as many as 500 electricians were working simultaneously, each pulling down $54 an hour plus $52 an hour in benefits — $106 an hour in overtime with $70 in benefits. By the end of 2016, many of the workers were earning the equivalent of three weeks’ salary in just one week, according to the book.

[ARW]

Kind of obvious, but Yes, it would be a lot easier.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Thanks for the info.

So then, they tore down elevated tracks over 2nd Avenue, and here it is, 80 years later, they are still working on the replacement?? 80 years and counting?? A public works project which had outlived many generations who worked on it?

Amazing.

[IndispensableDestiny]

So then, they tore down elevated tracks over 2nd Avenue, and here it is, 80 years later, they are still working on the replacement?? 80 years and counting?

The city did some digging in the late 1930s, then the war came. It dug about 30 blocks worth in the early 1970s before going broke. The current work is including some of what was dug in the 1970s.

The Lexington Line runs parallel to the 2nd Ave line. It's very crowed, at least before COVID swept the city.

[Aut Pax Aut Bellum]

Then the unions soak their guys with huge union dues, and then donate it to the politicians. A legal kickback.