The new hub will ease the connection between the A-C and 4-5 subways

Because most of the work is taking place underground, the constant construction progress across the Fulton Street Transit Center's three-block-long site is not obvious. But as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) told Community Board 1 this week, the entire project is already 54 percent complete -- and on track for mid-2014 completion.

(Click here to view the MTA’s presentation.)

Uday Durg, the MTA’s program executive for Lower Manhattan projects, presented the quarterly project update to the board on March 14th. Durg has led the Transit Center project for a decade now, and said that installing the first superstructure steel on March 9th was a major milestone.

Now, with the tower crane in place on Broadway near Fulton Street, steel installation will be steady through its planned fall 2011 completion. Erection of the oculus and the building’s glass façade will follow, along with fit-out of 25,000 square feet of retail space.

Below street level at the main-building site, new concrete stairways link to the mezzanine and the subway platforms. The A/C mezzanine, which once was lined with center columns and switchback ramps, is now rebuilt with side columns that open up the corridor -- one of the key features of the new hub, providing better visual wayfinding for about 300,000 daily commuters. Crews are now installing glass tiles and LED-lit advertising panels on corridor walls, and preparing for escalator components to arrive this spring via work trains.

To complete the A/C mezzanine work, a temporary pedestrian corridor is being built to link subway riders from the A/C to the 4/5 platform later in 2011. That will allow construction to proceed in the area below Broadway and Fulton’s southeast corner. And with multiple entrances at Fulton and Broadway now closed for construction, the 195 Broadway entrance at the northwest corner of Broadway and Dey is open 24 hours a day.

On the eastern end of the project, the new entrance at 135 William Street (at Fulton) is slated to open this July with new stairs and an escalator. An elevator also will open there in late 2011. Two more new entrances at 150 William Street and 129 Fulton Street also will improve eastern access in the next 18 months. (Read more about them here.)

Station rehabilitation at the 4/5 Fulton Street is progressing as planned, with renovations to its roof structure, wall, and flooring underway. Beneath it, Durg’s team is now building out the underground passage that will connect the main building to the Dey Street Concourse.

The concourse itself -- which stretches from Broadway to Church Street -- is now structurally complete, and crews are installing its ductwork, cladding, and flooring. Its primary entrance from the Dey Street Entryhouse also is in the fit-out phase, with steel and stairs in place since last fall.

At the westernmost end of the Fulton Transit Center, MTA crews  are on pace for the September 2011 reopening of the Cortlandt Street southbound platform. The northbound platform reopened in November 2009. Crews are now constructing the stairs and elevators to serve the station even while World Trade Center work proceeds just outside its western wall.

A total of 10 new escalators and 16 new elevators are part of what will make the entire Transit Center complex ADA-compliant.

Durg explained that restoration of the landmark nine-story Corbin Building also is continuing, with renovation of its north wall complete. Crews are now at work removing and preserving cast-iron elements on its south façade, as well as performing rehabilitation work inside the 1888 building. The Corbin’s restoration is expected to be complete and with ground-level retail open in late 2012.

To help alleviate the impacts of Transit Center construction during its final three years, the MTA has launched the “Shop Fulton Street” webpage and posted “Open for Business” signs on its fencing.

The agency also has committed to Environmental Performance Commitments such as using ultra low-sulfur diesel fuel in its equipment, noise monitoring, recycling 80 percent of its construction waste, and reducing its water and energy demand. Such measures should qualify the station for LEED certification upon its 2014 opening.

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