[14th Street at 4th Avenue looking east yesterday]
In recent weeks, I've noted how the city continues to prep 14th Street for its expanded role during the 15-month L-train closure next spring, including the markings for the Select Bus Service (SBS) lane between First Avenue and Third Avenue and the arrival of the dedicated bike lanes on 12th Street and 13th Street.
As previously reported, 14th Street will serve as a (mostly) car free busway for displaced subway commuters.
In an article posted Tuesday, Crain's (HT KT!) pointed out the latest alteration: red traffic lanes at 14th Street intersections between Third Avenue and Ninth Avenue, "which will signal that motorists must exit."
To Crain's:
By April, white Bus Only wording will be stenciled in the black boxes to make the message clear. Similar restricted lanes are planned for Delancey Street between the Williamsburg Bridge and the Bowery.
You can kind of see the full effect in this dodging-traffic shot...
And next?
Also to come are pedestrian walkways on 14th Street to relieve jammed sidewalks, as well as designated curbside loading zones for businesses.
This is what that plan (unveiled this past summer) looks like via the city...
Meanwhile, here's (part of) the area in front of the future tech hub, which will be a construction zone starting in the first quarter of 2019 ... likely making 14th Street even more stressed...
Back to Crain's:
The storm-related repairs to the East River crossing could drive 275,000 daily underground commuters to ground level at 14th Street, where the city plans to direct cars from the thoroughfare and run 80 buses per hour.
On Tuesday, Assembly Member Harvey Epstein along with residents and advocates rallied outside the MTA HQ on Broadway to call for greater community input to mitigate the ongoing impact of the L-train renovations underway on 14th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.
This past summer, residents learned that this corridor is not only the main construction zone leading up to the L-train closure, but also during the 15 months the MTA expects the trains to be offline between Bedford Avenue and Eight Avenue.
As one 14th Street resident told me about Epstein's press conference: "He got really annoyed with the MTA's intransigence about the ongoing work. Same issues: loud noise, accessibility issues, late hours — going to 24/7 — and general horribleness."
Here's part of the press statement released by Epstein's office (and NY1 has a recap here ... and Town & Village here)...
Assembly Member Harvey Epstein advocated with residents and business owners of 14th Street to draw attention to concerns over air quality, noise, and dust mitigation as a result of the L Train renovations. Tenants, business owners, community groups, elected officials, and others gathered to hold the MTA accountable to the repercussions of ongoing construction, which have hurt small businesses and created innumerable nuisances for local tenants.
Local residents have raised concerns about the MTA’s limited engagement. Without any input from the community, the L Train construction has created huge impediments on 14th Street. Small businesses are obstructed by sidewalk closures and barriers, and many local owners have reported a decrease in business since construction began. Tenants have been harangued by constant white noise, traffic jams, and dust and debris that have impacted air quality. There’s also been little consideration for accessibility, and sidewalk closures have made it difficult for people with disabilities to access the affected area.
The press conference was held to highlight these ongoing issues and bring the stories of 14th Street residents to the forefront. With the support of Assembly Member Epstein, advocates demanded that the MTA take definitive steps to address community concerns, including: holding monthly meetings with 14th Street residents; implementing shorter hours of construction, including prohibiting work on Sundays; instituting an independent monitor for air quality and environmental concerns.
“We're calling on the MTA to be a better neighbor to folks on 14th Street” Epstein said. “We're not trying to stop the MTA from doing the necessary work to improve the L train line and the 14th Street and First Avenue, but we do expect the MTA to seek community input in order to minimize the impact of ongoing construction on local residents."
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and City Councilmember Carlina Rivera also called for more accountability from the MTA.
MTA spokesperson Shams Tarek provided this statement to Gothamist:
"We have had dozens of meetings with neighbors of the L Project, have developed extensive procedures to minimize the impact of construction, and welcome practical ideas on how we can further protect local quality of life," Tarek said. "We require our contractors to uphold strict guidelines regarding noise, vibration, air quality, and safety, are monitoring all of these impacts, and any suggestion otherwise is just false."
Meanwhile, Gothamist has a piece from Wednesday focusing on the green stuff (upper-left-hand corner in that photo above) that workers are dredging up from the bowels of the L tube.
Transit Authority President Andy Byford had pledged to be transparent about what materials workers would dispose of and how. As for the green substance, officials said that it was water, concrete and dirt, per Gothamist.
"I don't believe anything the MTA says," resident Penny Pennline said Tuesday. "I'm not buying it, they also said 9/11 was safe for the first responders, where are those people now?"
L-train gunk aside, there are other quality-of-life issues, such as the constant noise. A resident who lives adjacent to the construction site shared this video from Wednesday...
Here's 14th Street resident Patrick Ryan from Tuesday: "Everyone who lives on East 14th Street understands the L train has to be repaired, but the conditions that the residents and schools and small businesses are living under are untenable and dangerous. The air quality in our area has suffered immensely due to the continuous use of diesel run machinery, a constant flow of trucks, and fifteen uncovered industrial dumpsters regularly being filled and emptied and overflowing into the streets.”
In another development, Gov. Cuomo was scheduled (at the last minute) to tour the Canarsie tube overnight "so that he and his experts can decide if repair work really needs to take 15 months," the Postreported.
“This is a vital and complicated project. We’re talking about a hundred year old tunnel. This is highly disruptive to New Yorkers,” Cuomo said after the tour. “I want to be able to look New Yorkers in the face and tell them that this is the best possible way to have done this.”
All photos courtesy of the 542 E. 14th St Tenants' Association
As previously reported, the city put in a bike lane on the north curb of 12th Street from Seventh Avenue to Avenue C, and the south curb of 13th Street from Greenwich Avenue to Avenue B separated from traffic with a painted buffer ahead of the April L-train closure.
The city continues to prep 14th Street for its expanded role during the L-train closure next spring. Last week the markings went down for the eastbound Select Bus Service (SBS) lane between First Avenue and Third Avenue...
The westbound lanes are already in place (as noted here).
The M14 SBS will supplement existing M14A and M14D local bus service on 14th Street, making five stops in each direction between First and Tenth Avenues ... Just before the L train tunnel reconstruction project begins, the M14 SBS route will be extended east to the planned Stuyvesant Cove ferry terminal on the East River to accommodate ferry customers from Brooklyn. Once M14 SBS is implemented, combined with the existing 14th Street local bus service and daily high-occupancy vehicle restrictions on most of 14th Street from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., crosstown buses will be scheduled no more than two minutes apart during peak hours.
Back on Thursday, the city began to mark the westbound Select Bus Service (SBS) lane on 14th Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue. (Thanks to KT and Pinch for the tip on Thursday!)
As the MTA and DOT announced last week, this SBS service launches on Sunday, April 21 "to allow for customers to sample and become acclimated to new travel options."
"With DOT crews now putting down new street markings for bus lanes and bike lanes, we are deeply committed to having our streets ready for the tunnel closure next April," DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said in a statement issued last week. "From a ‘bus bridge’ over the Williamsburg Bridge to the 14th Street Busway, from more Citi Bikes to expanded pedestrian space for displaced train commuters, we and our MTA partners are up for this enormous challenge."
The SBS route was originally set to start on Jan. 6. Officials haven't offered a reason why the start date was pushed back to April 21.
The M14 SBS will supplement existing M14A and M14D local bus service on 14th Street, making five stops in each direction between First and Tenth Avenues ... Just before the L train tunnel reconstruction project begins, the M14 SBS route will be extended east to the planned Stuyvesant Cove ferry terminal on the East River to accommodate ferry customers from Brooklyn. Once M14 SBS is implemented, combined with the existing 14th Street local bus service and daily high-occupancy vehicle restrictions on most of 14th Street from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., crosstown buses will be scheduled no more than two minutes apart during peak hours.
And and a few more photos from Saturday ... heading west on 14th Street (already identifying one potential SBS lane issue in front of the USPS retail storefront) ...
DOT crews yesterday painted the new westbound bike lane on 13th Street... starting at Avenue B (the crew was just west of Second Avenue when I saw them)...
There is a curious gap just east of First Avenue... at first glance, it appears the the paint crew simply stopped and continued past the parked car...
However, a reader of the block chimed in saying that there's a curb cut here (and the car parked here later, seeing as the back wheels are on the freshly marked lane)...
As previously reported, the city put in a bike lane on the north curb of 12th Street from Seventh Avenue to Avenue C, and the south curb of 13th Street from Greenwich Avenue to Avenue B separated from traffic with a painted buffer ahead of the April L-train closure.
As you may have heard, read, seen, the MTA yesterday announced that the much-anticipated and long-dreaded (but necessary!) L-train shutdown will begin on Saturday, April 27, 2019.
If you missed this, then here are more details via the MTA news release, shared here...
MTA New York City Transit (MTA NYC Transit) and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) announced new details about what customers can expect ahead of April 2019 when the L train tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn is closed for 15 months for extensive repairs from Superstorm Sandy...
• The L tunnel will close for its 15-month reconstruction on Saturday, April 27, 2019. This means that the last day for L service between 8th Av and Bedford Av in Brooklyn will be Friday, April 26, 2019. L train service will continue throughout Brooklyn, between the Bedford Av station, which will remain open during the tunnel closure, and the Canarsie-Rockaway Parkway station.
• The alternative service options for customers, which includes five additional bus routes, a new M14 Select Bus Service on 14th Street and a ferry service, will begin on Sunday, April 21, 2019, to allow for customers to sample and become acclimated to new travel options. The additional subway service on other lines – more than 1,000 additional roundtrips – will begin on April 28, 2019, following the L tunnel closure. Read the full plan for temporary service options in support of the L tunnel reconstruction project.
• Customers will be able to meet in person with MTA NYC Transit and NYCDOT team members to plan their routes, through a series of open houses, pop-up events or one of the three mobile information centers – two vans and a bus – which will make stops to meet with customers. Official dates and times for open houses and schedules for events and the mobile information center locations will be posted on the L tunnel reconstruction website once announced.
• Numerous stations have received or are receiving capacity expansions, with newly reopened or expanded entrances, stairs and corridors. NYCDOT and MTA NYC Transit are coordinating with key City agencies – such as the NYPD, Department of Buildings and Citywide Events Coordination and Management – on aligning City operations with the needs of L train alternate transit services, including working to minimize disruption from construction projects and events.
• The construction for the project is on schedule. In Manhattan, the construction site footprint and hours of work both reduce between 1st Avenue and Avenue A in January 2019. In Brooklyn, most barricades will be removed along with permanent street and sidewalk restoration on Bedford Avenue by early November 2018, and throughout early 2019, work will continue to open and do permanent finishes on the additional stairs, three of four which have already opened for increased capacity.
• Officials are committing to monitor the air for particulates typically caused by diesel emissions, known as PM2.5, and making results publicly available. This is in addition to the air quality monitoring already in place for the project’s construction sites.
• Outreach continues with customers, local residents, local businesses, and elected officials.
“We’re continuing unprecedented efforts at public outreach, responding to local communities and giving as much notice as possible on key dates in this project,” said NYC Transit President Andy Byford. “With the l running as a Brooklyn-only service for 15 months starting after the weekend of April 27, we’ve been hard at work with our partners at NYCDOT and other City agencies to make sure that the alternate train, bus, ferry and bicycle networks work together to get people around successfully.”
“With DOT crews now putting down new street markings for bus lanes and bike lanes, we are deeply committed to having our streets ready for the l tunnel closure next April,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “From a ‘bus bridge’ over the Williamsburg Bridge to the 14th Street Busway, from more Citi Bikes to expanded pedestrian space for displaced l train commuters, we and our MTA partners are up for this enormous challenge.”
For a reminder about remaining L service changes in 2018, visit the L 2018 service notice page. To help customers plan ahead in 2019, new service information details about the L in 2019 include:
Overnight service closures and weekend closures during February, March and April 2019, from 8th Av in Manhattan to Broadway Junction in Brooklyn to prepare the tunnel ahead of the closure and to expedite maintenance on the l tracks remaining in service when the tunnel is closed. Weekend dates scheduled are:
- Feb 2-3
- Feb 9-10
- Feb 16-17
- Feb 23-24
- Mar 2-3
- Mar 9-10
- Mar 16-17
- April 27-28
The MTA recently plastered both sides of 14th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue — the main construction zone for the L-train rehab — with banners touting the new ADA-compliant entrances on the way at Avenue A and other scenes from the incoming stations ... many of these renderings were similar to the ones unveiled in the summer of 2017.
However, there are several new scenes, which EVG reader Hank's Pound of Spaghetti shared... Hank had a sensible question: Why are the scalies arguing?
Does this indicate that life with the all-new L train still mean signal and switch problems and track fires, leading to possibly tense exchanges between commuters? Or are these roomies at EVGB upset over that drunken bocce match that got out of hand on the roof?
Hank also spotted the same female scalie with different male straphangers...
... and do these two know the men arguing behind them? ...
As we reported on Wednesday, crews are laying the pedalers’ paths and new parking lanes for the protected bike lanes on the north curb of 12th Street from Seventh Avenue to Avenue C, and the south curb of 13th Street from Greenwich Avenue to Avenue B.
EVG regular Lola Sáenz noted this morning that workers are creating the bike-lane outlines on 12th Street ... with crews spotted at First Avenue...
... and heading east toward Avenue C...
One worker told Lola that the green machine is on Greenwich today painting the bike lanes... and making its way toward the east...
Back on Sept. 20, we noted that — presumably — DOT officials distributed the above flyers to residents who live on 12th Street and 13th Street... providing information about protected bike lanes that are in development on 12th Street and 13th Street (as well as Horatio Street and Greenwich Avenue) ahead of the April 2019 L-train shutdown.
As reported in June, the DOT decided against its original idea for a single, two-way bike lane on 13th Street in favor of two separate, one-way lanes for 12th and 13th streets.
The city is putting in a bike lane on the north curb of 12th Street from Seventh Avenue to Avenue C, and the south curb of 13th Street from Greenwich Avenue to Avenue B separated from traffic with a painted buffer and flexible delineators.
Multiple EVG readers have pointed out that this work has started in recent days/weeks (painted buffer and flexible delineators still to come).
Here's a look at 13th Street, starting at Avenue B... where the "No Stopping Anytime" signs are now posted on the south side of the street ...
... at Avenue A...
...a view to the east from First Avenue...
...at First Avenue...
...a view to the east from Third Avenue...
... looking to the west between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue...
The work is just underway on 12th Street, where the "No Stopping Anytime" signs arrived ... here are two photos (thanks Brian K!) ... at 12th between Avenue A and Avenue B...
... and between Avenue A and First Avenue...
This link takes you to the DOT's overview for these bike lanes.
During the L-train outage, DOT officials expect these bike lanes to handle a surge in people bicycling. Cycling advocates have applauded this development, citing the lack of protected bike lanes going crosstown.
While the bike-lane work is moving forward, another lawsuit is aiming to put an end to this plan, as well as other L-train related planning. As Gothamist reported on Oct. 2:
On [Oct. 1], West Village resident and attorney Arthur Schwartz filed his second lawsuit against the MTA and the DOT, calling for yet another environmental assessment, as well as last minute changes to the agencies' sweeping mitigation plan. Specifically, Schwartz and his allies are opposed to the creation of a dedicated busway on 14th Street and an adjacent sidewalk expansion for pedestrians, along with the addition of protected bike lanes on 12th and 13th Street.
"The goal is to eliminate those bike lanes as designed, to make them not protected bike lanes or not do them at all," Schwartz told Gothamist, adding that his preference would be for the lanes to be restored to parking spaces. "I just don't think there's any genuinely demonstrated demand for people who used to take the L train who are all of a sudden going to hop on a Citi Bike."
The closing signage is up on the southwest corner of 14th Street and First Avenue ... where the Vitamin Shoppe outpost will vacate the space on Nov. 17 ...
The listing for the space doesn't include the asking rent.
This past summer, The Motley Fool listed the Vitamin Shoppe as a brand that may not make it through 2018:
Its sales tumbled for six straight quarters, and analysts expect it to post a 5 percent sales decline and a net loss for the full year. Vitamin Shoppe’s stock tumbled more than 80 percent over the past three years.
Its ongoing store closures might soften the impact on its margins, but it also weakens its brand presence against GNC. There are persistent rumors about GNC merging with Vitamin Shoppe, but combining two losers won’t make a winner ...
The Vitamin Shoppes on Broadway at Astor Place and Union Square East will remain in business.
An EVG reader who lives on 12th Street shared the above flyer... found slipped inside the front door of her building yesterday.
The flyer provides information about protected bike lanes that will be implemented starting this month on 12th Street and 13th Street (as well as Horatio Street and Greenwich Avenue) ahead of the April 2019 L-train shutdown.
Back in June, the DOT made public its bike-lane plans... scrapping its original idea for a single, two-way bike lane on 13th Street in favor of two separate, one-way lanes for 12th and 13th streets.
The flyer provides the first details on the timing of the work — starting with this month. The city will install bike lanes on the north curb of 12th Street from Seventh Avenue to Avenue C, and the south curb of 13th Street from Greenwich Avenue to Avenue B separated from traffic with a painted buffer and flexible delineators.
The DOT shared this info in a tweet on Tuesday as well...
In preparation for the April 2019 L tunnel reconstruction DOT will implement safety improvements on 12th St, 13th St, Horatio St, Greenwich Ave from Ave C to Hudson St in Manhattan:
🚲Install protected #bikenyc lanes
🚶Increase safety
🚗Organize & calm traffic
🚶Shorten crossings pic.twitter.com/LFU1oa5v1I
This month DOT & @MTA will begin bus & road safety improvements on 14th St from 1st Ave to 9th Ave in Manhattan, in preparation for the L tunnel reconstruction:
🚗Maintains local access
🚌 Improve bus reliability
🚚Improve curb access for deliveries
🚶Improve pedestrian safety pic.twitter.com/Jfh7fSd7eo
Ahead of this work on 14th Street ... EVG regular Pinch noted the other day that the city removed the flexible stanchions that helped divide 14th Street at First Avenue...
... now...
You can find the city's full transporation plan during the L-train closure at this link.
Last night, a handful of local elected officials along with reps from the MTA and the city gathered at Middle Collegiate Church on Second Avenue for an L-train shutdown Town Hall.
Aaron Gordon has a nice recap at Gothamist today. Here's an excerpt specifically related to my post yesterday about 14th Street and Avenue A serving as the main staging area for the upgrades to the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel:
Multiple residents voiced a belief that asbestos was being improperly disposed of in dumpsters near their apartments, something New York City Transit president Andy Byford assured them isn’t happening. He promised to post something on the MTA website detailing exactly what materials are being disposed of and that asbestos is not one of them, which requires completely separate disposal teams and procedures due to its high toxicity. “If you all really think that,” he said, “then I think we owe it to you to get something up on the website to get your mind at rest.”
Several citizens also expressed concern about the “considerable truck traffic,” as one put it, that has already inundated the neighborhood. Another said she’s experiencing more headaches and sore throats than usual and cannot open windows out of fear construction dust would enter her apartment. Byford pointed out they simply cannot do the work without trucks bringing materials in and out through the East Village shafts — which will become elevators into the 1st Ave L station after the shutdown is complete — but did offer that at the peak of construction, 30 trucks’ worth of debris will come out of the tunnel per day and 10 will be going in with new material.
[EVG photo from last month]
Byford also said that although the work inside the tunnel will be 24/7 to try and wrap up the project as quickly as possible, surface-level construction will not be all hours of the day.
Meanwhile, as Streetsblog reports, Community Board 6 members said that "the current plan for next year’s L-train shutdown will fall considerable short of what will be needed to efficiently move the 400,000 daily commuters who will be affected." This link goes to the Streetsblog piece.
