Alexandra Ortiz
Subway by George Hodan
The L Project was the partial closure and reconstruction of the New York City Subway's 14th Street Tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn that started in April 2019 and ended recently on April 26th, 2020. Reconstruction was undertaken due to the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The hurricane brought corrosive salt water into the near century-old Canarsie Tunnel, resulting in permanently damaged equipment. The L train was only able to run temporarily due to emergency repairs. Cornell and Columbia University engineers recruited by Governor Andrew Cuomo employed modern construction methods in order to maintain service in the tunnel simultaneously.
This project has had a considerable impact on the city given the high ridership of the L train, which reaches 400,000 riders per weekday. You may recall when the L trains arrived every 20 minutes during the night and on weekends.
In 2018, a noticeable uptick of individuals moved from their homes between October and December before a projected shutdown of the L train on April 27th 2019, which would entail 15-18 months with no service. That same year, after Cuomo announced that the shutdown was cancelled on January 3rd, Dumbo Moving CEO Lior Rachmany divulged to Metro, “We don’t usually ask the customers [why they move], but they did mention, ‘I want to move before they’re shutting it down, what’s the best time of the year to do that?’”
Former straphanger Kelly Tieger told The New York Times that she moved with her husband to Connecticut in anticipation of the subway shutdown. She taught at a Chelsea school and lived in an apartment in Bushwick, which offered a 25-minute commute to Manhattan. Tieger stated regarding their reasoning for the move in August 2018, “We hadn’t thought about leaving, and then we heard about the L train. It sort of became this thing of, like, what kind of life do we want to live?”
On April 26th, Cuomo announced that the project ultimately was completed both under budget, saving over $100 million, and completed in 12 months as opposed to 15 months as was outlined in the original shutdown plan. The damaged portions of the benchwall were enveloped by fiberglass panels, and were outfitted with a fiber optic monitoring system so that engineers can keep track of possible structural damage in the future. Due to their old age and the fact that Hurricane Sandy flooded the tunnel, a solution to the damage needed to be provided to ensure that service continued. There are, however, individuals who believe that rebuilding the benchwall of the tunnel would have been a better alternative to simply reinforcing it. Consulting engineer Mike Abrahams said in a 2019 MTA board meeting, “There are certainly surface-life advantages to doing that” concerning the complete removal and replacement of the benchwall.
Benchwalls are walls, oftentimes with railings, on the sides of the tunnel, which facilitate emergency access or exits. Because they are made of cement and therefore offer protection from fire, water damage, and rats, there are communications and power cables within them. The benchwalls do not contain the new cables, which are placed above them instead as part of a “cable racking” system. The jacketing, or outer sheath, of the cables is updated to reflect current technological advances, quashing the need for them to be encased in concrete for protection. This also means that cables can now be upgraded or added with ease.
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