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MTA Contractors Mishandle Debris From Second Avenue Construction

Dust is a fact of life on parts of the Upper East Side these days as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority constructs the Second Avenue subway.

"People, when that dust comes up, literally run through the streets, covering their faces," said one local.

The MTA has taken steps to try to contain it, but it looks like the agency's contractors are not always following city rules for properly containing the dust from the site.

NY1 crews found a number of trucks driving for blocks before raising their tarps in violation of a rule requiring trucks to cover their debris.

The station's cameras also caught debris clearly shedding dust as it was loaded into a contractor's truck. That would appear to be in violation of city rules requiring construction material to be "sufficiently wetted to prevent dust from being airborne."

The city Department of Transportation requires that trucks take mandated routes. In this case, the trucks here are supposed to go down Second Avenue down to either 66th Street or 67th Street and then take First or Third Avenues out of Manhattan.

NY1 tracked a violator from the Second Avenue subway construction crossing Central Park and not covering the load.

Enforcement of the correct routes, according to the Department of Transportation, is up to the police department, but the NYPD had not commented on NY1's story.

As for the uncovered trucks, the city Department of Environmental Protection says so far it has not received any complaints.

The agency has received 19 air quality complaints since 2010, but inspectors found no violations.

Assemblyman Micah Kellner said the MTA as owner of the site has to force its contractors to comply.

 

"I think it's going to take a lawsuit and people calling for construction to stop because one thing MTA has said, it wants to get this done by hook or by crook," said Kellner.

NY1 offered to show the MTA its video of the trucks, but the station was told the agency did not have time to view it.

MTA officials say they will remind contractors about the regulations.

With Video - http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/transit/158835/ny1-exclusive--mta-contractors-mishandle-debris-from-second-avenue-construction

As part of the ongoing FasTrack project, from April 7th to the 16th, there will be no Manhattan-bound E- or F-line service at Sutphin Blvd (Hillside only), Briarwood-Van Wyck Blvd and 75 Av. Manhattan-bound trains will run express between Parsons Blvd or Jamaica-Van Wyck and Forest Hills-71 Av at all times during this service change.

 

This is not a Fastrack G/O as the never mention Fastrack. Thats just a standard G/O.

And what reason is this being done?

If the (C ) is getting them, is there a direct announcment off the MTA that it will? Regardless of the news saying this.

Most of the media don't even know what the (C ) line uses, rather then saying R32, they are sayingt he (C ) line cars

All I'm doing is just waiting until the MTA places them some where, rather then hearing rumors on where they should go. Unless the rumors come directly from the T/A..

I do hope they can make it to the A and or C, but that I don't know.

I would give some to the SIRTOA as well, to get them over with, instead of giving them R46s or R68s.

Here are the upcoming dates (As per a G/O. photo of a poster I saw from a friend)

IRT 7th Avenue:

(34th-Atlantic)

April 9-13, June 25-29, October 15-19

IRT Lexington Avenue:

(42nd-Atlantic)

June 11-15, Sept. 3-7, November 5-9

IND 6th Avenue:

(59th-W4th)

May: 14-18, July: 23-27, Sept. 24-28

IND 8th Avenue:

(59th-WTC & Jay)

April 23-27, July 9-13, October 22-26

Jeez, how am I supposed to remember the exact number? Gosh!

 

Oh, it's 47 R42's and 1 R40M that is married to an R42.

 

I thought all the R40Ms are retired?

_______________________________________________________________

If you guys have not been on the MTAs website, Yes the design will be based on the R143/160:

http://www.governor....2MTA-Investment (Photo is from the MTA.info only)

Shoot, i thought they retired the Orion 6s? Went there about a month ago and none =/

Yep. The and ( C) will stick with the old as always. The only newer OLD cars it could end up with is the R68s, then the R160s way way down the line...

Already expected this. One of the MTA Videos mention to redo some the lines done. Forgot which one was it.

Service Change Posted: 03/13/2012 2:13PM

From what I heard, this is a 12-9 and there was ANOTHER 12-9 on the line at around 11AM on the Express track of 74th Street. Damn!

Due to a police investigation at Broadway-Lafayette:

Uptown train service is running on the line from Jay Street to W 4 Street.

Select uptown ,train service is running on the line from the Bergen Street Station to the 36th Street Station (Queens).

Please expect delays on the , and train service at this time.

Finally, them windows are clean............. Until months later when its dirty....

BTW no plans on repainting the car ends?

In each of the Fast-Track operations, the MTA did not provide alternative shuttle buses, or promote the usage of bus.

 

In addition to organizing the workers for the Fast=Track operation, each shuttle bus requires a driver. The Fast-Track program simply re-arranges the work that would be done, as well as the workers for the task. The more shuttle buses that are used, the greater the cost of the operation, and those costs have to coordinated between the various departments.

 

Remember that even during the hours of the Fast-Track operation, the subways still carry a great deal of people.

 

Mike

There was shuttle bus Service for the Grand Street as per announcements around.

57X was an Express Bus route it seems like it:

Read here:

CDTA: Capital District Transportation Authority. Routes and Schedules: NX: Northway Express Service

And why not?

 

Especially for the 8th Avenue phase of Fasttrack, you can simply have the and swap normal 24/7 roles (since the 8th Avenue line will be closed then) with the suspended and the running its regular weekday route (no shuttle on those nights) and simply otherwise extended to Parsons-Archer to cover for the . Other than perhaps at the very beginning of AM rush having the run local until the © and start reaching the local stops, to me it makes a lot more sense than having the terminate at Second Avenue, especially since the can easily pick up the slack for those nights and for a few nights, the added bonus of giving Broadway-Brooklyn riders the same one-seat ride to Manhattan they have on weekdays.

It COULD work, but knowing the it may just be a bit expensive for them. Plus all of this goes thru the Union and stuff, since workers would be extending themselves thru another borough.

I wouldn't use the anyways, use the rather.

i'd wonder what it be like if they put FASTRACK on the LIRR/Metro-North

Fastrack was not created by the MTA itself for all its division. It was created by NYCT.

Plus there is no need for Fastrack. Metro-North and LIRR got things under control. TBH most of MNCRR looks totally up-to-date. Except the NEC.

Why don't they merge the southern with the northern ? People will still be able to connect between sections via the and trains.

I mentioned that too. But someone pointed out, it may confuse passengers who want ether Bronx or Brooklyn bound service. People who get on the along Broadway would think its going to the Bronx, and those who get on the along 8th Avenue may get confuse of it going to Brooklyn.

If its sooooooo confusing, then send the to 42nd Street for connecting directly between the (D)s rather then Whitehall Street, forcing people to use the at Jay or the to 42nd. I was at Whitehall Street and Jay this week, and people were confused as hell. But Idc, some of them are at fault for being to lazy and NOT read the G/O posters, which has been up about week.

Maybe he wanted service from 34th Street to 148th Street, since there are a lot of co-ops there. He does not realize that when something happens on the West side IRT, the always gets cut since that is a "supplemental" line to the .

The thing is the was cut, because there are way to many trains backed up north of 42nd Street heading to Penn. It takes a few mins to relay at 34th Street, not seconds. WITH the as well.

I had to wait nearly 10min for my train to get out of TSQ heading to 34th Street the first day.

IF service shall run, I would just have ONE train running as a shuttle from 148th Street to 135th Street, no need to use the M track at 135th.

The Fastrack 7th Avenue ain't over, its gonna come back soon. I'm just wondering whats the plan for next time.

Yesterday, there was a G/O with the (2)s wrong railing between 96th and 110th. Had to wait 40min just to wait for two downtown (2)s to pass, for my Uptown train to go. Imagine the running, that would be hell.

It must be you. Or the website with ads/media around. Here ill post the article:

The MTA’s Fastrack closures inconvenience thousands of passengers. At a monthly NYC MTA Transit Committee meeting Monday, Board member Andrew Albert complained that during the last FastTrack, some Number 3 subway line riders endured interruptions even though crews did no maintenance there. “Why was it necessary to completely suspend the number three line, relegating those passengers on the Upper Lenox line to second class status and have to ride buses?” asked Albert.

 

In response, New York City Transit Chief Thomas Prendergast said he’d consider changing the program so that lines will be shut down only where the work is being completed.

 

The MTA said shutting down entire lines for maintenance will save $10-million in labor costs this year, because more work is completed in a shorter amount of time.

 

Meantime, the shutdowns continue: beginning tonight, portions of the Sixth Avenue Subway line will be shut down from 10 pm to 5 am for the next four consecutive nights, so that repairs and track maintenance can be completed uninterrupted.

 

As part of the shutdown, there will be no service on the B, D, F and M lines from West Fourth Street to 57th Street in Manhattan. D trains will run via the 8th Avenue line between Columbus Avenue and West Fourth Street. In Brooklyn, D trains will operate between Coney Island and 6th street, and via the R line between 36th Street in Brooklyn to Whitehall Street in Lower Manhattan.

 

F trains will operate via the E line between Roosevelt Avenue in Queens and West Fourth Street in Manhattan, in both directions. The Q train will be extended from 57th Street in Manhattan to 21st Street Queensbridge in Queens.

 

Also at Monday’s meeting, New York Police Department Transit Bureau Chief Joseph Fox released last year’s crime statistics. Fox told the Board that total major felonies increased 29.5 percent from January 2011 and January 2012. He said the majority of those increases come from electronic theft crimes, like “iPods and iPhones.”

 

The NYPD reported that there were no murders or rapes on the subway system in either year.

MTA Board Member: Overnight Shutdowns Too Broad (And More are On the Way) | Transportation Nation

Heres a bit of news on Fastrack............

MTA Board Member: Overnight Shutdowns Too Broad (And More are On the Way) | Transportation Nation

Internet giant Facebook is accessing smartphone users' personal text messages, an investigation revealed Sunday.

Facebook admitted reading text messages belonging to smartphone users who downloaded the social-networking app and said that it was accessing the data as part of a trial to launch its own messaging service, The (London) Sunday Times reported.

A spokesman for Facebook says while nothing has been launched yet, users will be prompted to give permission when the feature debuts.

"The permission is clearly disclosed on the app page in the Android marketplace and is in anticipation of new features that enable users to integrate Facebook features with their texts," a spokesman for Facebook said in a statement. "However, other than some very limited testing, we haven't launched anything yet so we're not using the permission.

Other well-known companies accessing smartphone users' personal data -- such as text messages -- include photo-sharing site Flickr, dating site Badoo and Yahoo Messenger, the paper said.

Read more: Facebook spies on phone users' text messages, report says | Fox News

And another Privacy issue:

Facebook, Flickr, others accused of reading text messages

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/facebook-flickr-others-accused-of-reading-text-messages/70237

With what was mentioned about service being suspended to Jay Street from 59th in mind, here's how I would handle it:

 

1. is suspended. runs all night and replaces the via 53rd Street tunnel and Queens Boulevard running its normal route, though extended to Parsons-Archer.

 

2. runs normal to 59th street, then via the to West 4th and then the to Jay Street before resuming regular route.

 

3. © runs normal schedule and also runs via the and to end of normal service.

 

4. ( ends early.

See. Now your brain is a lot better in THIS, compared to all the crap about sending the © to Culver and yadayada in other posts.

Thats better! THIS only!

But you know how the is with its plan. Some of them are plain stupid. Like the to Whitehall instead of sending that joint to Astoria to replace those UNNEEDED shuttles.

I would of also had the extend to 21st Street, Astoria or 42nd Street, instead of it ending at Whitehall. To ENABLE a DIRECT connection to the at 42nd Street instead of the and/or at Jay St to the at W4th Street.

Well I'm going to be railfanning the Train via 8th Avenue on March 1st 2012 to get videos/pics of this.:cool:

Fastrack = Done

Fastrack (© = Next

....And any future ones too. I'm not gonna focus on just a single line of course ! But happy hunting!

Is the terminating at 2 Avenue because of the track configuration south of W.4 street

This will answer your question:

http://advisory.mtanyct.info/pdf_files/BDFM_FASTRACK_map.pdf

I keep on hearing that LIB would have been alright if Nassau paid their fair share? What's the fair share of a bloated budget? Yea Nassau is going to have to pay, maybe not what it likes, (and they might not even have the money to pay what the system needs to run as it has, times are tough, all over the world. But is Nassau paying the what they feel is fair to operate a skeleton system on a bloated budget really fair to the county, the riders, or the tax payers?

Ok, but knowing nassau they wouldn't pay the MTA, so pretty much the MTA would still cut LIB for good. Now looking at NICE, they still plan to run with the $2 million. Even tho there will be changes. And yes Nassau may be forced to pay up a bit more regardless.

The (2)/(5) also swap lines, even when there is no G/Os are in effect.

Usually one is sent down on ether line due to delays on ether line. Lots of times I see this happening.