ABSTRACT
Rebuilding New York City Mass Transit - Recent ProjectsConnie Crawford, Senior VP and Chief Engineer, MTA NYC Transit
Presented: Wednesday, May 12
11:30 am - 12:15 pm
MTA New York City Transit provides 7 million rides each weekday, getting workers, school children and discretionary riders to and from their destinations. The subway system consists of a 230-route-mile network of tunnels, elevated and open cut routes (722 track miles) with a supporting infrastructure of ventilation and pump plants, power distribution, signal and communication systems, and 468 stations. Its fleet of 6,000+ cars is maintained at 14 maintenance and two overhaul shops.
Transit also operates over 4,000 buses that come in a variety of bus types - extra long articulated buses, heavy over-the-road buses, and standard sized buses that come in both regular and low-floor configurations. They are powered by diesel, compressed natural gas (CNG) and hybrid power plants. The 20 depots and five base shops must be sized and equipped according to the fleets they service. A CNG depot, for example, must have greater fire suppression capabilities than a diesel bus only depot, and articulated buses take up more space than standards.
Transit's capital program must keep all of these systems running with high levels of reliability. Except for the design and purchase of rolling stock, track replacement and some computer procurements, the Capital Program Management (CPM) Department manages all capital projects from planning through design and construction. Nearly 1,600 strong, CPM resembles a full service engineering company. Most of Transit's capital projects, whether above or below ground, structural, electrical or communications and signals are designed and then managed during construction by in-house staff.
The presentation by Senior Vice President Cosema E. Crawford will describe several recent structural projects that Transit's CPM Department has designed and managed. Two of these projects, the "Columbia Stations," and the Roosevelt Avenue complex are progressing while Transit's daily peak subway service continues. Transit operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and capital work must be shoe-horned into this schedule. Historical preservation and environmental concerns must also be addressed in virtually every project. A variety of State and City codes must be adhered to as well.
In pursuing its mission "To improve New York City's Transit system by designing and building world class capital projects," CPM now has 134 projects in design and 199 in construction with an aggregate value of more than $6 billion. Since 1997, aided by our capital and operating improvement strategies, the system has experienced a 21% percent increase in system ridership to 2.1 billion passenger trips per year.
