$56M Contract Awarded for East Side Access Ventilation Facility

The MTA announced Monday that it awarded a $56 million contract to build a ventilation facility for the tunnels that will carry Long Island Rail Road trains to Grand Central Terminal. The contract was awarded to Schiavone/Picone of Secaucus. The civil engineering company is a joint venture of Schiavone Construction Co. and John P. Picone, Inc. The facility, which is slated to be finished in April 2015, will be constructed completely underground at East 55th Street in Manhattan, between Park and Madison avenues. 

As part of East Side Access project, ventilation facilities are also being built between Park and Madison avenues at 37th, 44th and 50th streets. Another facility is under construction along 63rd Street at York and Second avenues.

The new East 55th Street facility also will provide ventilation for Grand Central's new LIRR passenger concourse. Seventy percent of the jobs in central Manhattan are within walking distance of Grand Central Terminal, located on the east side of Manhattan.

The East Side Access Project was conceived by MTA's Long Island Railroad to provide Long Island-based commuters with a "one seat ride" to the east side of Manhattan. The newly bored tunnels in Manhattan cross beneath operating transit lines and some of the most expensive real estate in the world

The $6 Billion project includes:

• 2-miles of tunnel boring through soft ground in Queens
• The use of the lower level of the existing 63rd Street tunnel that crosses beneath the East River
• 7-miles of TBM-bored tunnels extending from the East River over to Park Avenue, then southward to Grand Central Terminal 
• Two blast caverns that will house new LIRR platforms below Grand Central Terminal's existing subway and Metro North platforms