Plans to replace the Midtown Bus Terminal in Manhattan are moving forward, as the Port Authority of New York and the New Jersey Board of Commissioners authorized the first two contracts on July 25, pending a federal environmental review. The $271 million Dyer Avenue deck will allow bus service to continue during construction of the new $10 billion west side terminal.
The Port Authority selected MLJ Contracting, Great Neck, NY, for the construction of the decks and AECOM Tishman to manage the construction of this segment of the project. MLJ declined to comment on the work, and AECOM Tishman did not immediately respond to inquiries.
The covers are expected to be built over low-lying sections of Dyer Avenue and the Lincoln Tunnel Expressway between West 37th Street and Eighth Avenue and West 38th and 39th Streets. They would be used to organize buses during the construction of the new terminal and then become 3.5 hectares of public green space after construction is complete.
A Federal Transit Administration environmental review and New York City land use review are still pending, but Port Authority officials say they expect construction to begin later this year or early next year.
In a statement, Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole called the board’s vote to authorize the contracts “an emphatic step toward replacing the aging sight with a new transportation facility state-of-the-art suitable for our region.”
The project is needed to replace the aging facility with what O’Toole called “a new, beautiful and efficient bus terminal” with a multi-story main entrance atrium. The new terminal would also add capacity to meet projected passenger growth by 2050 and allow intercity buses that currently use the streets around the terminal to move operations inland. The terminal is already the largest in the country and the busiest in the world, according to the Port Authority, with more than 7,200 buses and 200,000 passengers passing through on an average weekday.
The Port Authority plans to use phased construction for the project. New ramps connecting directly to the tunnel and temporary terminal are expected to be completed in 2028, followed by the 2.1 million square foot main terminal in 2032. The scope of the project also includes a storage building and independent installation.
The future terminal is designed to serve all-electric bus fleets and implement a sensor-based traffic management system. The Port Authority says it plans to seek LEED certification and that the facility will feature on-site renewable energy, zoned heating and cooling systems, and heat recovery and reuse systems.
To help fund the work, New York City and state officials announced a deal with the Port Authority in March for an estimated $2 billion in tax revenue from nearby commercial development sites.
