PMOC East Side Access Project, Grand Central Terminal, New York City

AVA’s Role: Anil Verma Associates, Inc. (AVA) served as a Project Management Oversight Consultant (PMOC) to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) from 1990 through 2004. AVA evaluated the management and technical capacity of the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and the Capital Construction Company (CCC), as well as the development and implementation of major projects undertaken by the CCC, including the East Side Access (ESA) Project. AVA’s responsibilities included oversight of the CCC’s technical capacity to develop and implement major capital construction and rehabilitation programs and projects, as well as review of technical and engineering documents and schedules prepared by the ESA project team and its consultants. As part of the PMO consultant team, AVA also assisted in the development and implementation of an independent Risk Analysis and Management Plan.

Description: 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 LIRR capacity into Manhattan, significantly reduce travel times for Long Island and eastern Queens commuters traveling to Manhattan’s East Side, and provide a new commuter rail station in Sunnyside, Queens. New tunnels will be constructed from the LIRR mainline tracks in Queens, beneath Amtrak’s Sunnyside Yard and the LIRR’s existing rail yard, and will connect to the existing 63rd Street Tunnel just beyond Northern Boulevard. In Manhattan, new tunnels will be bored from the existing bellmouth structure at Second Avenue and 63rd Street, extending west and then south beneath Park Avenue and Metro-North Railroad’s four-track right-of-way. At Grand Central Terminal (GCT), a new passenger concourse will be constructed within space currently occupied by Metro-North’s Madison Avenue Yard. Eight tracks and four wide platforms, along with mezzanines and concourses, will be constructed within two large caverns beneath Park Avenue at an elevation below GCT’s existing lower level.