New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s East Side Access (ESA) is one of the largest transportation infrastructure project undertaken in the United States. Construction began on the $10 billion plus rail project in 2002 and was completed in 2023.
Prior to our engagement by URS Corporation, contractors were damaging subsurface utilities, causing costly delays and outages. When T2ue Utility Engineers deployed our Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) expertise, downtime was dramatically reduced as we provided detailed utility mapping and coordination to contractors and consultants.
T2ue provided SUE at Sunnyside Yards, Woodside Station and Grand Central Terminal, including designating utilities through Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and Amtrak territories. This work incorporated detailed utility investigations, drafting of utilities designated on base topography maps, confined space, utility structure data sheets as well as utility test holes using vacuum excavation and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR).
The ESA project involved the expansion of the busiest commuter rail line in America, the LIRR. It will provide a new terminal and concourse below Grand Central Terminal for all 11 Long Island Rail Road branches and includes 11 miles of tunneling in Queens and Manhattan, and 40 miles of new track.
The ESA increases the LIRR’s capacity in Manhattan by 45 per cent and shortens travel time for 165,000 commuters per day travelling from Long Island and eastern Queens to Manhattan’s east side by 40 minutes.
