Lirr: Grand Central In 10 Years - Long Island Rail Road's 10-year Grand Central Terminal project - Brief Article

Railway Age, Oct 1, 1998

The Long Island Rail Road's 10-year journey to Grand Central Terminal is under way.

A project management team was announced last month for the $3.2 billion East Side Access project, which will bring Long Island Rail Road trains to 42nd Street on the East Side of Manhattan.

The contract went to the joint venture team of Bechtel Infrastructure, Inc./URS Greiner. The ESA project, which will take about a decade to complete, is the biggest ever undertaken by the New York MTA. It will connect LIRR's main line and Port Washington branch with a new 10-track, five-platform terminal in Grand Central's lower level.

The Bechtel/URS Greinier team said the project will involve more than 20,000 linear feet of new and reconstructed tunnels between Long Island City and Manhattan, including the lower level of the 63rd Street-Queens Boulevard Connector Tunnel.

Bechtel/URS Grenier said there will be "a major reconfiguration of GCT's lower level to accommodate LIRR trains, new and/or upgraded LIRR passenger access points at GCT, a new commuter rail station at Sunnyside Yard in Long Island City, and a new railcar storage yard in Queens, as well as traction power, signals, and communications systems."

LIRR's only terminal in Manhattan now is Penn Station on the West Side, which receives an average of one LIRR train every 100 seconds during peak hours. By providing a projected 172,000 rides as day to and from the East Side, the ESA project will both relieve congestion at Penn Station and give LIRR the capacity for expansion.