The long-delayed launch of the MTA’s East Side Access service could possibly be pushed past January due to a problem with an exhaust fan within the new station, officers stated Wednesday.
The most recent drawback stems from one exhaust system within the new terminal that isn’t pulling in sufficient air due to a “counteracting air flow” in Grand Central Terminal, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber stated.
Lieber wouldn’t commit to a brand new opening date, and stated crews have been working to repair the issue.
Lieber for years promised to open the brand new service — which goals to deliver LIRR trains into a brand new station named “Grand Central Madison” that sits 150 toes beneath Grand Central Terminal — by the top of 2022.
“It’s a code issue, it’s a safety issue,” Lieber stated Wednesday. “It’s as if you had a walkthrough of a house that was done and you can smell the new house and you can smell the new paint, and they told you there’s still a village code inspection that needs to take place.”
It’s the newest hiccup for a project lengthy stricken by mismanagement. In 2001, the service was anticipated to open in 2011 at a price of $4.3 billion. Almost 12 years later, the worth tag sits at $11.6 billion, federal information present.
Lieber stated he isn’t positive who’s to blame for the newest delay, however desires to be sure the MTA doesn’t pay something further if one of many company’s contractors made an engineering error.
“I’m not paying for extra work that is necessitated because somebody, however well intentioned, didn’t design something perfectly. And we’ll see what happens,” he stated.
The MTA final month introduced the total service on the station wouldn’t launch till 2023. As a substitute of working up to 24 trains per hour to and from the brand new station, the station was slated to launch by the top of December with not more than two trains per hour between Grand Central Madison and Jamaica Terminal in Queens.
The MTA pushed again the truncated launch within the remaining days of the yr.
The project confronted last-minute drama that threatened to delay the opening as soon as earlier than. The MTA was granted a last-minute waiver from federal officers in December over necessary observe security know-how that was not but put in. The company has till Feb. 25 to full that work.