The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has awarded a $404.8 million bid to construct a Long Island Railroad concourse at Grand Central Terminal as part of its East Side Access project to GCT Constructors, JV, comprised of the Secaucus, N.J.-based builder Schiavone Construction Co. and the Lawrence-based architectural firm John P. Picone, Inc.
Under the federally-funded project – which MTA officials said could reach $428.9 million – GCT Constructors would be responsible for building a 375,000 square-foot concourse, electrical components, escalators and elevators 140 feet below ground across the station’s network from 44th to 50th streets and Park Avenue in Manhattan.
“This world class project will be an economic game-changer for New York City and Long Island,” MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast said in a statement. “There is no other transit infrastructure project in the United States that is as complex as East Side Access or carries as much economic promise for the region it will serve.”
MTA officials said nine other firms submitted bids for the project. It will receive funding from the Federal Transit Administration as well as from the MTA’s local funds.
The project includes the architectural, structural, mechanical and electrical facilities that would make up the new concourse, through which all 11 of the Long Island Railroad’s branches would be brought to Manhattan’s east side, officials said.
The East Side Access project is expected to shorten travel times and enhance travel to Manhattan and JFK Airport in Queens.
Officials did not disclose when work was slated to begin. The East Side Access project is due for competion by 2019.
“Up to this point, East Side Access work at Grand Central Terminal has been largely unseen by the public. This contract finally brings the construction from 140 feet below-ground up to the dining concourse at [Grand Central Terminal] and in other places where the public will finally start to see what’s been going on right underneath their feet,” said Michael Horodniceanu, the MTA’s president for capital construction.
Work would also involve the creation of passenger connections from the concourse to Grand Central’s lower level dining concourse, its Biltmore Room and passageways on 45th and 47th streets, officials said.
Approximately 17 escalators would also be built at 45th, 46th, 47th and 48th streets, as well as escalators and staircases, officials said.
In addition, MTA officials said mechanical and electrical enhancements of ventilation buildings at 44th and 50th streets would be conducted under the project.
