The Metropolitan Transport Authority advanced plans to turn a goods line to New York City into a slight commuter railway. Called Interborough Express (IBX), the service will cover 14 miles through Brooklyn and Queens and will create 19 new stations in an existing right of passage. The design design contract was directed to an association between Jacobs Civil Consultants Inc. and Henningson, Durham and Richardson Architecture and Engineering, or Jacobs/HDR, for about $ 166 million.
“I love this: We use underused existing existing infrastructures, a freight railway that gets a maximum of two trains a day and that we will turn it into a light railway line that is perhaps 200,000 people a day,” said Janno Lieber, CEO and chairman of the MTA during a meeting of the Agency Board at the end of July.
The MTA estimates that IBX will cost a total of $ 5.5 billion, and half of the funding was already reserved for the Capital Plan of the 2025-2029 agency.
The proposed train line was ruined through parts of the city where traffic is often scarce. Although the 900,000 New York lives half a kilometer from the route, half do not have cars and many live in what the MTA refers to “railway deserts” or areas without significant traffic access. With a final execution time of 32 minutes and connection points on the metro lines, bus stops and the Long Island railway, the IBX should speed up travel inside and between the municipalities, according to the MTA.
The agency selected the Jacobs/HDR offer of six applicants. The other bidders included AECOM USA INC., Arrup Us Inc., a joint company of HNTB New York Engineering and Architecture PC and STV incorporated, PC of Services Exp and a joint company of engineers and architects of Gannett Fleming with Atkinsréalis Pa PC DBA DBA DBA ATKINSRÉALIS ARCHESTURE AND ENGINEERING.
The MTA refused to reveal the value of the five more projects offers.
The MTA says he disembarked Jacobs/HDR due to the “ extensive experience of collaboration that similar work on projects of comparable magnitude and complexity ” and his “ innovative approach to sequencing, the coordination of logistics and project design, and demonstrated the understanding of the restrictions of the runner, ” the agency wrote in his July Council’s objects of action.
Jacobs/HDR will have 24 months to develop early designs and bridge documents for two additional design/construction contracts, one for each of the two phases of construction. The first focuses on preparing the corridor for the train: repair of bridges, transfer of utility, environmental remediation and much more, while the second is dedicated to installing the light railway, including tasks such as laying tracks, construction stations and providing traction power. An option in the Jacobs/HDR contract allows you to divide the first phase by three by $ 8.6 million.
The ink design design contract marks the progress in a project proposed by the Regional Plan Association for the first time in the 1990’s. Of the different sections of freight lanes that are not used for public passengers in New York, the conversion of this section of tracks has been a priority for the organization because it would serve the largest number of possible pilots, said Kate Slevin, Non -profit that advances for the development of accessible traffic in the New York Metropolitan Area.
“Much of the traffic system in New York City was built at a time when the goal was to improve access inside and outside Manhattan,” said Slevin. “But there has been a lot of growth and development in Brooklyn and Queens,” included along the seafront of Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, where the IBX will end.
Originally, the RPA foreseen the line as 26 kilometers to the Bronx, but a northern part of the right of passage will be incorporated, however, to the MTA extension of the Metro-North New Haven line at the Penn Station station.
Slevin proved the persecution of the transit development of ruler Kathy Hutchul with the IBX that advances, along with the outreach campaigns and the concerns resolved on how the freight service and the passenger service can operate in the same vein.
Although the MTA has not yet offered an estimated completion date, Slevin said that the RPA will be attentive to ensure that the development remains within its existing right of passage. Integration into local communities, either by fostering new companies, supporting existing green spaces, or both, will be important parts of the IBX, Slevin said, as well as ensuring that the premises on both sides of the slopes will be able to access the chopped portions.
