Second Avenue Subway, 63rd Street Station Rehabilitation

Our subsidiary, Judlau Contracting, Inc., performed this $229 million contract to rehabilitate 63^rd Street Station to alleviate overcrowding on the 4, 5, and 6 IRT Lexington Avenue lines. The station’s one-sided platforms were converted into cast-in-place island platforms. Four entrances were constructed - Entrance 1 featuring street-level escalators, Entrances 3 and 4 with access to staircases, and Entrance 2, which provides access to an ADA-accessible elevator. The four entrances included ADA-accessible elevators, escalators, and various architectural finishes at the platform levels, including stainless steel column covers, porcelain enamel, and aluminum composite ceilings, granite floor tile, and a porcelain ceramic wall tile system. A tenant-occupied building was jacked at the corner of 63^rd Street and Third Avenue to provide clearance to install support beams to place finishes and construct an escalator. In total, five elevators and two escalators were installed. The project required excavation of 583,600 cubic yards of rock and 460,300 cubic yards of soil and required 261,038 cubic yards of concrete, 48.9 million pounds of rebar, and 40.7 million pounds of structural steel.

The crews demolished and removed the station’s ventilation system and installed normal and emergency station mechanical systems, including tunnel ventilation. Restricted space for the HVAC and ventilation equipment required detailed installation sequencing of two fan plants designed to operate together in the event of an emergency. The complete ventilation system incorporates four fans, 25 dampers, four motor control centers, four variable frequency drives, and two supervisory control cabinets linked to a SCADA network, accessible from the rail control center. The electrical distribution systems were modified to provide 480V, 208V, and 120V electrical service to the station and adjacent tunnel areas.

The Second Avenue Subway, Phase I project was recognized with an Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers. It was a New York Transit Museum Honoree.