Mosiac artwork being installed in new Times Sq to 6th Avenue passageway!

[Eric B]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/arts/design/nick-cave-42nd-street-subway.html

Just saw this in NY1 "In The Papers". It at first, erroneously says "corridor connecting Times Square and Grand Central Station", then one of te photo captions says accurately: "which links the Times Square-42 Street station to the Bryant Park station".

Says it will be "unveiled" Friday, so does that mean that at least part of the passage will open? (to other displays will be installd next year).

It's now been 12 years since the passage was constructed and promised to the new 1 Bryant Park tower (BOA) tenants.

So now, we have an actual glimpse of it. Pretty colorful artwrk, but the passage is pretty narrow; kind of like the old Gimbel's passage. Is brightly lit, though. The orange, yellow and dark blue vertical lines on the right wall basically evoke the three subway lines that are now linked (though it seems to omit red for 7th Ave.)

[OIG119]

The passageway is open now. It was built where Track 3 used to be.

[Eric B]

Just came from there. It's a completely different passage than the one originally planned, even up to fairly recently, when they produced that map for the finished complex. I head straight to the northernmost mezzanine to find nothing has changed, and the passage is still walled off with no sign of any soon opening. So I think, is it only partially open, perhaps from the mid block arcade to Times Sq. with the 6th Ave. portion what will be completed next year? But there's no change there either (though there is some sort of construction going on on the sidewalk just east of there).

So I enter from TSQ and head down the shuttle platform, and find the passage that just goes straight ahead to the stairs to the 6th Ave. platforms in what seems to be an all new area. I didn't even know where I was coming down at. In the past plan drawn up, it was supposed to go downstairs from the shutle and cross under 4 track to access the sidewalk vault of the north side of 42nd St., which would lead to the arcade and the 6th Ave. north mezzanine. But this passage seems to be right under 42nd St. (I guess they just made it the former trackway, to save the extra construction of going under the other track).

I wonder if they're still going to use the north vault (Durst) passage, which I believe was already constructed when the Durst building was built [and again, promised to its tenants], and perhaps at least have it connect to the arcade. What they should do, it connect it to the old sealed up underpass from when the shuttle was the original mainline.

The arcade entrance would include the ADA access, and I thought all new construction had to have the ADA additions, but there weren't any on what I saw today.

[Eric B]

Here I did a long planned video of the whole walk from 6th to 8th. Will have to redo it and figure how to affix my phone to the hshopping cart I had, so it would be a smooth run. 

https://www.facebook.com/eric.bolden/posts/10225613226695004

[mrsman]

Could someone explain what connections are to be helped by this new transfer?

To me, it seems like many of the connections that can be made through this passageway were already possible at other stations like Herald Square, Columbus Circle, and 14 St - 6 Av.

[RailRunRob]

15 minutes ago, mrsman said:

Could someone explain what connections are to be helped by this new transfer?

To me, it seems like many of the connections that can be made through this passageway were already possible at other stations like Herald Square, Columbus Circle, and 14 St - 6 Av.

Besides easier access to Times Square underground a one-seat connection between Both 6th and 7th Express services is the main new connection added here. Not a option anywhere else.

[RailRunRob]

13 hours ago, Eric B said:

Here I did a long planned video of the whole walk from 6th to 8th. Will have to redo it and figure how to affix my phone to the hshopping cart I had, so it would be a smooth run. 

https://www.facebook.com/eric.bolden/posts/10225613226695004

The im interested to see if there going to add the wayfinding and signage I was able to transfer from the 2 to D today for the 1st time outside of Brooklyn and nowhere was I able to see that platform level on the 7th side and shy of the new stairway nothing on the 6th ave side. Was a big deal to me  I wonder how everything is integrated moving forward. Announcements, route maps etc.  

[shiznit1987]

10 hours ago, RailRunRob said:

Besides easier access to Times Square underground a one-seat connection between Both 6th and 7th Express services is the main new connection added here. Not a option anywhere else.

I for one will look forward to being able to grab the  to Bryant Park-42nd and being able to walk weather-free to the  to Penn when the  proves too crowded for my taste.

[bulk88]

WTF happened to the Bank of America tower passage? It was in the blue prints given in the EIS.

 

 

[bulk88]

[R10 2952]

On 9/10/2021 at 11:46 AM, bulk88 said:

WTF happened to the Bank of America tower passage? It was in the blue prints given in the EIS.

Good question, been wondering that myself...

[Eric B]

Looks like they're cutting out going under track 4 to connect it, but I imagine they might still use it between the two control areas on that side. (Again, it was in fact promised to the tenants of the new building, so they would at least have the indoor access to 6th ave.).

Here's the final video I did (for that direction): 

 

[Eric B]

Here's the opposite direction, including to 5th Ave.

 

[Eric B]

On 9/10/2021 at 2:46 PM, bulk88 said:

WTF happened to the Bank of America tower passage? It was in the blue prints given in the EIS.

 

 

On 9/18/2021 at 4:01 PM, R10 2952 said:

Good question, been wondering that myself...

Kept forgetting to mention, that in catching up reading NY Div. Era Bulletins (where I used to get all of my transit news before the internet, and then entering Transit myself), I see that the sudden change in the construction plan, including the purpose was covered in the August edition. (Recall, some of us didn't even know about the new alignment until that day, going out there and looking for the passage!)

So on P4, Rail News:

Quote

Construction contract A-35302/A-37116 is for station reconstruction and ADA accessibility at the Times Square and Grand Central S stations. The scope of this contract consists of converting the existing three-track 42nd Street Shuttle operation to a two-track operation and modifying and extending the station platforms to comply with ADA requirements. MTA Construction & Development has requested that the MTA Board ratify Modification Number 30 for the design and construction of the Sixth Avenue Connector and deletion of the Durst Underpass.

The contract calls for the construction of an underpass under Track 4 (the “Durst Underpass”), which provides a required alternate means of egress from the Times Square shuttle platform through the Durst Building to 42nd Street. However, construction of the Durst Underpass presented construction challenges that created risks to shuttle service and to the schedule for completion of the project. For those reasons, MTA C&D sought an easier-to-build solution that would minimize impacts to customer service.
The identified solution is an alternative to the Durst Underpass and provides an alternate means of egress through the Bryant Park station on the IND Sixth Avenue Line. This solution has the advantages of allowing two track service to continue during construction, provides a free transfer to the Sixth Avenue BDFM Line and lessens the risk of impact to the project schedule. In addition, because the owner of the Durst Building had an obligation to fit out the Durst Underpass, it was willing to pay the MTA $7.56 million to be relieved of its obligations for performing its work.

The changed work in this modification consists principally of the deletion of the Durst Underpass and the design and construction of approximately 300 linear feet of enclosed connector in the Shuttle’s abandoned Track 3 right-of-way from the south end of the Times Square Shuttle platform to the Bryant Park station. The work also includes the construction of a ramp down to the connector and two separate stairways constructed from the connector (Shuttle Level) to the Bryant Park station uptown and downtown platforms. 

So it looks like the Durst passage is out of it for good, but I wonder if they'll still use the constructed passage (in the sidewalk vault), with the provisions for the exits in the Theatre arcade ("the Patio") and the 6th Av. north mezzanine. (It was promised to Durst tenants, and the passage to the arcade would at least bring them closer to Times Sq, in addition to the 6th Av. station. Didn't know Durst itself was performing the work).

I had said they should have used the existing sealed off underpass, but that connected to the old uptown platform, and it's sunk in now that it is not even anywhere near the passage (which did extend past the proposed new underpass, but still quite a distance away from the platform, which you can hardly even see from where the new station ends now! So it would have required more construction that was not even planned, and the space is next to the Conde Nast building (4 Times Sq), which was already built up, and thus might not even have been available, or I assumed it probably already had provisions for the connection. 
Plus, given the angle of the passageway and location of the uptown platform (which I had not really grasped before the shuttle station construction, as you had to go so far over to take the foot bridge anyway), it was rather out of the way, while the new alignment is the shortest distance possible.