By Philip Newman
The No. 7 subway extension will not be ready for the straphanging multitudes until June, but the MTA made an exception Friday for the man who championed the whole idea and shepherded it to fruition.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials and other dignitaries, took an exclusive ride to a new destination in New York City’s transit history — 34th Street and 11th Avenue — in an early celebration of the No. 7 extension, which still ends its trips at Times Square.
The far West Side, some of the last undeveloped area in Manhattan, has been tagged by developers for big things.
“Today’s historic ride is yet another symbol of how New York is a become a place where big projects can get done,” Bloomberg said. “This project is the linchpin of an ambitious, transit-oriented, mixed use development that is already transforming Manhattan’s far West Side, and it demonstrates our administration’s commitment over the past 12 years to invest in infrastructure that will allow our city to grow.”
The $2.4 billion project was paid for by New York City. The last previous extension of the subway that was financed by the city opened in December 1950, when the Queens Boulevard line was extended to Jamaica-179th Street.
Construction of the No. 7 extension began in December 2007.
For the No. 7 extension, tunnel boring machines burrowed 9,285 feet from 11th Avenue and 26th Street to Times Square. Tunneling between 34th Street and Times Square presented unique challenges, as the subway will run under the Eighth Avenue subway, Amtrak and New Jersey Transit tunnels as well as tunnels to the former New York Central Railroad, the Lincoln Tunnel and the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
In January 2005, the City Council overwhelmingly approved the Bloomberg administration’s plan for rezoning the far West Side. The rezoning allows for more than 40 million square feet of mixed-use development, including 24 million square feet of Class A office development and 13,500 new apartments.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at timesledgernews@cnglocal.com or phone at 718-260-4536.
