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Chief Engineer Joe Trainor in 2006, building the new South Ferry Terminal
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The vastness of the New York City Transit (NYCT) system is undoubtedly daunting even to the most seasoned engineer. But for Joseph Trainor, chief engineer of Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Capital Construction, designing, building, and otherwise improving upon all 722 miles of the city’s subway network is the nature of the job.
A former marine engineering officer, Mr. Trainor joined the MTA in 1992 as a division engineer. His work spanned bus depot mechanical engineering to pollution remediation systems throughout the transit system. Eventually he took on rebuilding entire high-volume complexes like Times Square, 53rd St/Lexington, and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.
In one of the most significant feats of rebuilding in the aftermath of September 11th, Mr. Trainor led the MTA’s reconstruction of the 1 and 9 subway line from Chambers Street to South Ferry. His team rebuilt a major section of the tube destroyed as a result of the WTC collapse in less than seven months -- construction was awarded in February 2002 and the subway returned to service September 15, 2002.
In his current position since 2003, Mr. Trainor and MTA Capital’s in-house design and engineering teams built the new South Ferry Terminal. The $535 million terminal opened in March 2009, complete with seven escalators, street-to-platform elevators, an air-tempering system, an in-system transfer to the R/W Whitehall station, and a 10-car platform (improving on the original five-car platform nearby). And with excavation as deep as 120 feet, the project also included the discovery of four 18th-century Battery walls, which once fortified Manhattan’s southernmost tip -- before it was covered by shoreline-extending landfill.
Mr. Trainor is now at work on the MTA’s major capital construction projects that are adding tunnels, miles of new tracks, and entire stations. We asked him three questions about his work in Lower Manhattan and around the city.
With so many variables to consider in downtown capital construction projects -- from elaborate infrastructure, to archeological discoveries, to accommodating heavy traffic -- what’s the greatest engineering challenge you face in your work?
Mr. Trainor:The greatest engineering challenge is dealing with
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| Utilities beneath streets greatly impact MTA work |
the massive utilities that are under the streets of New York, because they have to be either upgraded or moved out of the way so we can get underground to do the work we normally do. It is an involved process that we do upfront, meeting with utilities and various agencies. Many times when we dig under the street, what we see on a drawing is not what we find, because people have gone in there and moved things around on an emergency basis. The Port Authority is dealing with a lot of that now with the World Trade Center site. So that’s always a big issue, especially because we’re always eager to get started once we get the funding in place. At South Ferry, we had a very ambitious contractor, Schiavone. I’ve worked with them before -- they are really aggressive, so we don’t want to hold them back. Once they are mobilized and ready to go, we want to give them the ability to do as much as they can as quickly as possible. It’s a challenge to get all of that into place by the time the contractor arrives.
Also at South Ferry, we had the issue of archaeology. The Federal Transportation Administration, [which provided funding for the project], mandated that we bring on a team of archaeologists who would monitor for artifacts. We knew where we could potentially hit artifacts because they could overlay our right-of-way with the shoreline of Manhattan from 1670. They could tell where the original fortifications had been and they knew the areas of concern. They didn’t know what we would find, but they knew potentially we would find something, and that proved to be fairly accurate.
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| More than 50,000 artifacts were discovered during South Ferry Terminal construction, including this historic Battery wall (now inside the new station) |
Schiavone was told to dig by hand and carefully uncover these artifacts. With the archaologists’ direction, the contractor’s crews and other specialists would catalog the findings, number and remove the stones, and perform photography of the find. We hit four sections of fort walls, which had an impact on our project. We were able to work in other areas in the meantime, but it would have been nice to have access to the entire site. Fortunately it wasn’t a major hit on the schedule.
Read about the Battery Wall discovery: History in the Making at South Ferry
Are you involved with the work going on around the 1 train box in the WTC?
We are. There is some discussion as to whether the work should go back to NYCT because it is an operating subway. We have been involved up to this point because of an ongoing relationship with the Port Authority. But more and more as we get into the details of WTC site development, its obvious that the issues we have with the Port are technical issues from Transit, and we (MTA Capital Construction) find ourselves acting as a middleman.
We used to have facilities all around the 1-train box: the overpass/underpass, a sewage ejector room, employee facilities. We have to replace or build several new components all around there -- everything we need to support that station -- and its all under the box. It’s like if we’re building a house on your property, you’ve got to tell me what to do because you own it. That’s why the Port is constructing it for us -- they perform the design and we comment on it. And NYCT has people from the Department of Subways stationed at that site to make sure nothing impacts the operation of the subway.
We have the same type of issues to open the southbound platform of the R/W [at Cortlandt Street] by the 10th anniversary of 9/11. We can’t work there right now because that whole side of Church Street is a P.A. construction site. We need to build a new stairway, work on the platform, and arrange the funding -- all of those discussions are taking place.
What’s your favorite part of being Chief Engineer of New York’s subway system?
I love the work. These are very large projects, and in New York with any major project, no matter who does it, things don’t always go as planned. And money is always an issue. Once you gain momentum on these jobs, the worst thing you can do is to lose it. There is a major emphasis on risk analysis, but the risk we face is the loss of momentum and potential lack of funds. But on all of these major contracts -- I don’t see things as risks, I see them as challenges.
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| Work on the 1/9 subway, which runs through the site, is an engineering challenge |
This is a system that, to build today, outfitted with trains and track signals, would cost a billion dollars a mile. So since we have 722 miles of subway, that’s almost a trillion dollars to build our system today, so the fact that we have to spend hundreds of millions a year for maintenance and rehabilitation, it’s a no-brainer. The major work will never come to an end, it’s a cycle. It’s like a living organism. To be a world-class system you have to expand and upgrade, which is why we have the “mega projects” like the No. 7 extension, the Fulton Transit Center, East-Side Access, the new Second Avenue line. There is no challenge we can’t overcome, but it needs funding. Things have never gotten cheaper in this town, especially when you work in the public domain under the streets of New York. And unfortunately it inconveniences people, especially on the weekends, but we have to do our work.
This is the most challenging work I’ve ever done. I’ve been here since 1992, and I had no idea before I got here how immense and complex this system was. I learn something new everyday. I live in Forest Hills -- born, raised and educated here in New York City. I love this town, and it’s just been the best job I’ve ever had. The system is so vast that I’m constantly learning new aspects of it and gaining new insights.
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