Gov tours L; More than tweaks on track?
CUOMO continued from p. 1
his recent tour.
Engineering experts from Cornell
and Columbia universities joined the
state’s commander in chief to inspect
the tunnel, at no cost to taxpayers.
They were essentially acting as checks
and balances to Cuomo’s own transportation
offi cials, who in October announced
that they would close the Canarsie
Tunnel on April 27, beginning
the L train’s stint as a local subway line
running between Canarsie and Williamsburg
— without any Manhattan
service — until June 2020.
The looming so-called “L-pocalypse”
would wreak havoc on the commutes of
some 250,000 straphangers who ride
the L train to Manhattan daily and will
be forced to adopt one or more forms of
alternative transportation being rolled
out during the fi x — making it imperative
to ensure the $477 million project
is done swiftly and correctly, Cuomo
said.
“The Metropolitan Transportation
Authority believes their methodology is
the best way to do it and the fastest way
to do it. New Yorkers tend to be a skeptical
bunch,” he said. “This is going to
be highly disruptive. And I wanted to
make sure we get the best minds, again,
on the globe, to review the project, because
I want them to be able to validate
we know this is disruptive, but there’s
no alternative.”
And although the experts could suggest
scrapping the state’s current repair
plan altogether, it is more likely they’ll
suggest minor tweaks or simply sign off
on what offi cials already proposed, according
to Cuomo. The governor told
radio station 1010Wins that commuters
shouldn’t get their hopes up for anything
less than “15 months of L” come
April 2019.
“I’m not holding out hope,” he said
following the tunnel tour. “New Yorkers
are willing to bear the expense and
the burden of change, and they get that
sometimes big projects are required.
But they want to make sure that it’s really
done right and it really has to be
done.”
But Judy Pesin, a member of the steering
committee of the ad-hoc W. 14th
St. Coalition, speaking before Cuomo’s
tunnel tour, expressed skepticism anything
major would be changed.
“Where has he been the last two
years?” she asked. “I think it’s a day
late and a dollar short. I’m a little disappointed
that he says he’s only going to
do it due to the complaints of the people
on the Brooklyn side,” she added.
“What about people on the Manhattan
side?
“It seems to me that the train has left
the station,” she said. “I can’t imagine
that anything’s going to happen at this
late date. It’s four months before they’re
going to do the work. He’s been walking
away for subway issues for years
The new crosstown bike lanes for 12th and 13th Sts. have mostly been
completed. The large striped buffer zone is for use by emergency vehicles
to get around traffic, according to the city Department of Transportation.
That’s also the reason why the flexible plastic “delineator”
poles are spaced about 50 feet apart from each other — to allow emergency
vehicles to access the buffer zone, D.O.T. said. Obviously, the
buffer area is also being used for temporary parking, as seen with the
delivery van on E. 13th St. east of Second Ave., in the photo above.
now,” she added.
Pesin, who lives on W. 13th St., said
she and her fellow Village and Chelsea
resident coalition members are now
going to focus on documenting the impacts
of the plan, the bike lane part of
which is already in place on 12th and
13th Sts.
“We’re in phase two now — ‘watch
and report,’” she said. “We want to
PHOTO BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
take pictures and monitor.”
The coalition is part of a lawsuit
fi led by Village District Leader Arthur
Schwartz against the L shutdown plan.
Asked his thoughts on the governor’s
11th-hour tunnel tour, Schwartz said
in an e-mail, “Cuomo has expressed
concern about the length of the project
and its dire impacts. The whole project
could have been done more easily, with
GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
Train tour: Gov. Cuomo walked
through the L train tunnel on
Dec. 14 to see if there’s any way
to speed up the looming repairs
slated to take 15 months.
fewer problems, at a lower cost.
“There were two options the M.T.A.
rejected. The fi rst was to do the tunnel
work on nights and weekends, like
every other tunnel repair they did and
the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority
did and the Port Authority did.
With this option they could have used
in-house workers, whose work cost is
far lower.
“The second option,” Schwartz said,
“was to work on one tube at a time;
there are two tubes. The service on
the L would have been slower but Williamsburg
wouldn’t be totally cut off.
With both options the need for mitigation
would have been far less.
“I would also want the governor to
consider the statistics they have used —
without scientifi c studies — fi rst, about
just how many people will use the bus
service going across the Williamsburg
Bridge to get to Manhattan. I think
most people will use the G train and go
south to Downtown Brooklyn, or north
to Long Island City. Also, I guarantee
that it will be faster to walk two to
three blocks than take the bus on 14th
St. to get to another subway station.”
Resident and block association leaders
are looking to meet with the governor,
Schwartz added.
Schneps Media TVG December 20, 2018 3