The East Side Access Project Discussion (ESA)

Not really all that noteworthy, but at the last LIRR committee meeting a public speaker called on the LIRR to abandon the deep-level station cavern and switch to the lower level option. Luckily the notion was only entertained for 0.2 seconds. We all know the lower-level option was badly flawed, but imagine if they switched to it this late in the game!

Despite grumblings about the depth, it should be better than the original scheme. The assumption was joint ticketing in the existing terminal and nowhere asa many uptown exits.

Is there any sort of diagram that shows the layout of the interlocking from the mainline to the new tunnels for ESA ?

Does anyone know what the interlocking from the LIRR mainline to the new ESA tunnels in Queens will look like ?

It is contained in a number of MTA Project Plans, e.g. 2002.

P.S. I got a copy of that thru a link on this thread, so look back until you find the link.

Wednesday, infrastructure firm CG/LA Infrastructure announced the winners of its coveted Project of the Year award as voted upon by infrastructure industry insiders. The news, which was released on MarineLink.com yesterday, brought the news that the LIRR's East Side Access Megaproject had tied this firm's Strategic Project of the Year award. From the article:

"Project of the Year awards are given in five categories covering strategy, financing, engineering, job creation and the environment. All projects have specific business opportunities to be realized in the next three to 18 months.

"The winners – announced at the 5th Annual North American Strategic Infrastructure Leadership Forum at the historic Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. – are as follows:

"The $8.2 billion East Side Access project in New York and the $1.5 billion Louisiana International Gulf Transfer Terminal (LIGTT) tied for the Strategic Project of the Year for their potential to generate a historic leap in a country or region's productivity and/or competitiveness.

"The East Side Access project will connect the Long Island Rail Road's (LIRR) Main and Port Washington lines in Queens to a new LIRR terminal beneath Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. The new connection will increase the LIRR's capacity into Manhattan, and dramatically shorten travel time for Long Island and eastern Queens commuters traveling to the east side of Manhattan."

East Side Access has gained quite a lot of awards and recognition in its slow climb to nearly being one of the most expensive and drawn out capital construction projects in the world (though I think the Second Avenue Subway has a comfortable hold on that title). East Side Access will certainly generate a historic leap in this region's productivity, as it will shave commute times off of countless LIRR riders.

Posted on: Thursday, October 31, 2013 No comments:
See More Posts About: Capital Construction, East Side Access, News

I've noticed that when traveling westbound towards NYP, that on the northern most track (the one that goes into line 4, closest to Sunnyside yard), that a trailing point switch track has been installed, coming in from the (railroad) north. But this is right where one of the ESA approach tunnels is being constructed. At the point where the switch track was installed, the approach track is already below grade, but not deep enough yet for a track to cross above. Does anybody know what this is for?

Thread diarrhea cleaned. Matter under control.

commuterjoe,

There are many switches going in or being replaced/upgraded throughout Harold to maintain service to NYP while adding three gaping holes in the middle toward GCT.

It's been just short of five months since we last had a look into the deep caverns of the MTA's massive East Side Access project, but on Tuesday the MTA uploaded a small set of photos onto its Flickr Streamshowing off some of the work that's taking place deep underground.

The set of photos is fairly small, only nine shots of the caverns and none of the concourse, but we'll take what we can get. For the most part, all major excavation on the project has been finished, so what they've been doing lately seems to be smoothing all the caverns and tunnels out and beginning to line the tunnels with insulation and stuff like that. It would be nice to see steel rails and signals going in downstairs and fully tiled concourses upstairs in this photo update, but I think we're still a good few years away from seeing that!

Two other recent photo uploads by the MTA from June and February can be used to compare how progress is coming along. There are even more photos on the MTA's Flickr Stream of past updates, but you'll have to do some sifting to get all of them.

Here are some of the highlights from the photo set, with my expanded captions (captions appear <i>below</i> photos).&nbsp; All photos are credit Metropolitan Transportation Authority/Patrick Cashin.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3744/1069 ... 2b27_o.jpg
In this photo we see what is likely one of the crossover caverns.&nbsp; A pair of crossover switches would be placed in this opening here before the tracks continued off in their independent tunnels.&nbsp; Drilling two smaller tunnels instead of one larger one is easier since you can have one smaller tunnel-boring machine make the cutouts for both tunnels.&nbsp; Crews can go back and excavate this crossover cavern or other connecting passageways afterwards.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2829/1069 ... aa48_o.jpg
This image is at a tough angle, but it looks like this shot was taken from inside one of the tunnels to Queens (where Queens would be behind the photographer) and where the tracks 1 and 2 split into two levels.&nbsp; You can see one of the tubes descends lower than the other one if you look ahead at the split.&nbsp; This opening would house the switches that would send trains to either the upper level or the lower level platforms in the main caverns.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2853/1069 ... 2981_o.jpg
This photo looks like it was taken inside one of the Manhattan-side Queens tunnels.&nbsp; One side of this tunnel would connect the the 63rd Street tunnel under the river while the other side would lead into the openings seen above which house the crossover and upper/lower level split switches.&nbsp; In this photo we can see the LIRR already has the insulation and construction of other initial structures underway here.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2858/1069 ... 2874_o.jpg
This is a photo of the huge station cavern that was excavated under Grand Central.&nbsp; Eventually two platforms and four tracks will be built inside this cavern.&nbsp; Here, you can see workers finishing out the walls as excavation often doesn't leave the smoothest final product.&nbsp; Note the workers climbing up the ramp in the bottom of the photo for scale.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5541/1069 ... 1799_o.jpg
View from the top of the caverns looking down at some workers.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3700/1069 ... b941_o.jpg
Here's a broader view of one of the station caverns.&nbsp; Eventually two platforms and four tracks will fit in here.&nbsp; This cavern appears more finished than the photo above which might be a photo of the second cavern which is to the right of this (there are two huge station cavers like this, each will house two platforms on top of each other and four tracks).
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7416/1069 ... 3361_o.jpg
Here's another view inside the huge station cavern.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2869/1069 ... f95b_o.jpg
This appears to be our first look inside what will eventually become the lower LIRR concourse.&nbsp; The new station will consist of two main passenger concourses, one on Grand Central's current lower level where the former Madison Avenue Yard sat and one at the very bottom of the escalators that sits in between the station caverns.&nbsp; Picture two of the huge station caverns above to either side of this concourse.&nbsp; The opening straight ahead in the picture likely leads around the bend to one of the large escalator banks up to the upper LIRR concourse.

Posted on Thursday, November 07, 2013 2 Comments:
See More Posts About: Capital Construction, East Side Access, News

Cool photos. Looks like it's getting there slowly but surely.

What will the names be of the inter-lockings near Grand Central?

Thomas wrote:What will the names be of the inter-lockings near Grand Central?

The quarterly report does not make explicit mention to it's name (like it does for PLAZA), but I wager it would be called ESA and it would look something like this.

Any updates regarding signaling technology procurement?