The MTA is touting the opening of a brand new subway entrance the Times Square station as the image of a brand new period in how capital tasks are accomplished.
It is positioned in the pedestrian plaza close to the nook of forty third Road, throughout from the place the Times Square New 12 months’s ball drops, and it encompasses a 15-foot vast stairway and elevator with entry to the shuttle to Grand Central Terminal. The venture is a part of the MTA’s $300 million forty second Road Connector venture, which seeks to enhance the busiest station in the subway system.
Talking at the station Monday, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber stated this venture, and the different work on escalators and bettering the Times Square shuttle, are how the MTA expects to do huge tasks going ahead.
“The 42nd Street connection project represents what the MTA was doing in the middle of the pandemic, which was building faster, building better, getting the system ready for New Yorkers to come back and we’re very proud,” he said. “This is a highlight of that effort.”
The MTA said that the new entranceway cost a total of $40 million, with $30 million coming from the agency and $10 million, for the new elevators, paid by Jamestown Properties, the company that owns One Times Square.
The new entrance also gives commuters a look at a sweeping, 468-foot mosaic by the artist Nick Cave — the longest mosaic in the subway system, according to the president of MTA Construction and Development, Jamie Torres-Springer. Before Monday, commuters could only see a third of the mosaic, but now that construction is complete the full piece is on display.
The renovations also included the addition of 18 new CCTV cameras.
“Every new elevator the MTA installs is another opportunity for someone to access the subways who otherwise might not be able to. This project — which came in on time and under budget — brings in added bonuses of private investment, great art, more space and circulation, and clearly-needed security cameras,” Lisa Daglian, govt director of Everlasting Residents Advisory Committee to the MTA, informed Gothamist.
Throughout the ribbon reducing for the new entrance, Lieber additionally gave an replace on the present plan for putting in extra elevators all through the subway system. Presently, there are 80 elevators below improvement and contracts for 26 this yr are signed. That’s a bump up from the preliminary 70 elevators the MTA had initially deliberate for the present capital plan.
“It may not seem like a big deal, but adding a second street-to-mezzanine elevator at this busy hub is really crucial for ensuring full-time access to 4 subway lines at this station, which are currently served by a single surface-level elevator,” Jessica Murray, chair of the MTA’s Advisory Committee for Transit Accessibility, stated in a press release.
She added, “It’s not a problem if the MTA relies on private companies to pay for elevators as long as they make sure that they are properly maintained and any funds saved are reinvested into one the roughly 350 NYC Transit and Staten Island Railroad stations that are still inaccessible.”
About 640,000 subway riders use the Times Square subway station every week day.