Express Service

On any given day, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) carries an average of 300,000 passengers in to and out of Manhattan.

Over the years, mass transit overcrowding has developed into a significant problem, especially for the LIRR. Approximately 500 daily trains run in and out of Manhattan, and its only hub is Penn Station in Midtown.
Several years of study of the transit problem and comprehensive planning culminated in a massive expansion project to bring the LIRR into a second hub at Grand Central Terminal.

Gaining Access

The East Side Access project carries an estimated price tag of $6.3 billion and is one of the largest mass transit construction projects in New York City. It began in 2001, with completion currently targeted for late 2016.

The scope of the project involves new subway tunnels from Queens to Manhattan connecting to the existing 63rd Street tunnel under the East River, a new station at Sunnyside in Queens and construction of a new underground terminal at Grand Central Station.

The Gramercy Group won the contract to completely gut and reconfigure the Madison Yard site at Grand Central for construction of the new LIRR concourse. For Gramercy, this isn’t a typical demolition project. The subterranean Madison Yard sits 100 feet below street level, which means the job requires compact equipment, including compact track loaders.

The Gramercy Group, based in Westbury, N.Y., is a demolition and remediation company. The company started in 1989 and operated as an asbestos abatement consulting firm until 2000, when Vincent Parziale and Frank Amicizia purchased it and expanded its operations to include full-scale demolition, environmental remediation and environmental cleanup.

“We are a turnkey organization—we have the ability to demolish a structure and also do all necessary abatement,” says Al Hanbridge, vice president of operations for Gramercy.

The new LIRR terminal will be built on the current Madison Yard site, which was previously an underground Amtrak train yard. Gramercy began work in April 2009 and anticipates completion of the site preparation in September of 2010.

Hanbridge says the new LIRR terminal will have two platforms, eight tunnels and a mezzanine with retail and entertainment establishments—all 100 feet below 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue.

“The Madison Yard site is approximately 200,000 square feet and will be the entry point into Grand Central from the tunnel under the East River,” Hanbridge remarks. “The actual tracks are 90 feet below Madison Yard, then it’s another 80 feet or so up to street level of Grand Central Terminal.”

A Century Project

The Madison Yard project is a $41 million contract for Gramercy, so Hanbridge has been concentrating most of his time on it. The project has proven to be anything but routine.

Since the job site is 100 feet below one of the busiest intersections in New York, it can only be accessed by train on existing lines and tunnels. Gramercy’s staging area is nearly 10 miles north at the BN Yard in Bronx, N.Y.

“There is no access whatsoever for anything bigger than a bread box [at Grand Central Terminal],” says Hanbridge. “Everything else is transported in and out by a work train.”
All the job site equipment and temporary structures are moved in by railcar—compact excavators, compact wheel loaders, hydraulic breakers, compact track loaders and skid-steer loaders, telehandlers, trailers and all safety equipment.

The demolition work involves clearing out all the existing tracks, rails and ballasts, concrete walls, track beds and the old platforms. “The demolition work also includes all of the infrastructure, like all the sewer lines, power grids and transformers. Basically [taking out] everything that’s in there in preparation for the next phase,” explains Robert Kaires, job site superintendent.

Because of the confined space at the job site, the use of compact equipment is a necessity. Three compact track loaders made by Bobcat Co., West Fargo., N.D., are used daily at the job site for demolition and excavation. Kaires says track loaders outfitted with breakers are used to break concrete. The main function of the Bobcats, though, is to load the excavated material into boxcars and send it out via railcar back to BN Yard for recycling, disposal or remediation.

One of the compact track loaders, a Bobcat T300, has a steel track undercarriage recently introduced by the company that has proven to be invaluable on a demolition job site, Kaires says.

“Quite honestly, this is probably the best thing Bobcat has come out with in a long time,” says Kaires. “This demolition environment is unique, and the machines are constantly going over concrete, rebar and structural steel.”

Steel tracks were introduced by Bobcat in February of 2009. The steel-track option was designed specifically for job site conditions much like heavy demolition work, which can take a toll on rubber or steel-reinforced rubber tracks.

Kaires says the payback for the steel tracks is very quick when factoring in downtime for track replacement. Replacement timing of the rubber tracks on the other two Bobcat loaders averages once per month.

On-Site Repair Shop

For Gramercy, equipment downtime can diminish project profit, but for the Madison Yard project it’s a logistics nightmare. Hanbridge says the company built a mechanic’s area right inside the job site to handle equipment repair needs, which is not typical for a construction job site.

“With the amount of equipment we have down there, I have a full-time maintenance man on-site,” he says. “If anything goes down, he has the capability to do full repairs.”
Even with a full-time technician on site, dependable equipment is critical to staying on time and on budget. According the Hanbridge, Bobcat brand loaders have earned high marks with Gramercy because of their dependability and durability.

“We chose Bobcats because of their reliability,” says Hanbridge. “They are well-designed machines. It’s a big deal to get a broken-down piece of equipment onto a train—in what’s basically a subway station in New York—and switch it out.”

Gramercy Group has worked with Bobcat of Long Island to support its equipment fleet since 2000, according to Gramercy principal Frank Amicizia, who says Bobcat and the dealership have earned his loyalty.

Gramercy says it anticipates work at Madison Yard to be completed by late 2011. When everything is completed, Hanbridge says the company will have excavated 15 miles of railroad track and approximately 400,000 tons of concrete and steel. The steel and ballast from the site is contaminated, so the company will also perform lead and asbestos abatement.

When the company moves its equipment out of the job site, what will be left is 200,000 square feet of open space ready to build the new Long Island Rail Road concourse at Grand Central Terminal.