Pending Tests Threaten MTA Deadline to Complete Second Avenue Subway

Workers take a break at the 72nd Street subway station construction project along Second Avenue. According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the station’s construction is 92% complete as of Sept. 1, but delayed elevator, escalator, and fire alarm testing may threaten the project’s Dec. 31 completion deadline.

With just less than 12 weeks remaining, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is in jeopardy of missing its Dec. 31 deadline to complete the Second Avenue subway project.

At the MTA’s Capital Program Oversight Committee Meeting on Sept. 26, independent engineer Kent Haggas said that systems testing at the four new Second Avenue subway stations will need to increase from 8–10 tests per week to 25 per week in order to finish by Dec. 31.

Systems testing involve New York City Transit officials evaluating contractors’ work after it has been completed and pre-tested, according to Anil Parikh, MTA Capital Construction’s senior vice president/program executive for the Second Avenue Subway project. Elevators, escalators and fire alarms are the primary systems that need to be tested.

“This is our number one concern,” Haggas said.

At 72nd Street, for instance, the elevators and escalators are scheduled to be tested on Nov. 30 because they still need to be tied into the fire alarm system, Haggas said. However, this date threatens the project’s completion because the systems “basically don’t pass [the tests] with flying colors on the first try,” said Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee (PCAC) executive director William Henderson. Henderson, who contributed to PCAC’s 2005 study “Ladies and Gentlemen: This Is Not a Drill” examining the MTA’s internal and external emergency communication policies, said systems tests have delayed other MTA projects, such as Fulton Center, in the past.

Michael Tobias, a principal at New York Engineers, an engineering firm that specializes in mechanical, electrical, plumbing, sprinkler, and fire protection services and has worked with government agencies such as the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, said construction delays are likely to blame for testing hold-ups. “More often than not, the reason why the testing takes a long time is because the stuff is not actually installed and ready to be tested.”

Tobias said it will be difficult to execute that many tests in such a short period of time but that it’s possible to meet the Dec. 31 deadline with more manpower. With more engineers and contractors, the MTA can run as many as five tests simultaneously, he said.

At a press conference on Sept. 28, MTA chairman and chief executive officer Tom Prendergast said that the MTA is still “on track” to finish the project by Dec. 31 but doesn’t want to rush testing. “We’re not going to adhere to a schedule and short-circuit those tests,” he said.