Cuomo Announces New L Train Tunnel Design Will Halt Dreaded Shutdown

Gov. Cuomo announced Thursday a new L train subway tunnel design will eliminate a full shut down in April as previously planned — avoiding one of the biggest transit disruptions ever to New Yorkers.

The previously anticipated 15-month shutdown — which some have dubbed the L-pocalypse — was set to begin in three months, affecting 225,000 people who use the subway line to commute between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Asked about reports Cuomo’s announcement could mean no full shutdown, Mayor de Blasio said, during an earlier press conference, that he got initial briefings Thursday and didn’t want to comment until the governor described the details to the public. Anything that avoids disruption, he favors, though, de Blasio added.

Cuomo said he asked a panel of experts to look into the looming L train work to make sure that there were no other alternatives, but to shut it down for necessary repair work.

The panel proposed a new design to use in the tunnel that has been implemented in Europe, Cuomo said. The design suggested would make it unnecessary to close the L-train tunnel in its entirety, allowing for one tube to be closed at a time while work is completed, he said, adding that the MTA was also on board.

Additionally, the universities of Cornell and Columbia were also brought on board to assist in finding an alternative plan or confirm that the the initial plan was the shortest and best one to implement.

Mary C. Boyce, dean of engineering at Colombia University said the collaboration was “very collaborative” as the team looked at designs worldwide to see which ones could work best in the city’s tunnel to best embed the communication cables in the tunnel — which is one of the repair tasks at hand.

Boyce said that they recommended that the cables be wrapped with a fireproof material on one side of the tunnel wall without using the benchwall structure.  

Lance Collins, dean of engineering at Cornell University, also said that among the various recommendations made by the team is install a walkway, improve the resiliency of the tunnel and an above ground generator. 

Collins said that all of the team’s recommendations will leave the tunnel safer than what it is. 

Boyce said the new design will allow for the recommendations to be implemented and allow New York to be “a leader in infrastracture” and the work can be done overnight, during the weekend and one tunnel tube at a time. 

The design would also include a benchwall wrapped in fiberglass and motion sensors.

“Necessity was the mother of invention. The closure of 15 months was highly problematic,” Cuomo said, adding that the new design is “better” and “cheaper.”

The announcement comes two weeks after Cuomo took a personal midnight tour of the L train tunnel Thursday ahead of the big repair project.

Following his 90-minute visit to the Canarsie Tunnel, which connects the Lower East Side to Williamsburg, he met with engineering experts and toured the areas damaged during Hurricane Sandy. Seven million gallons of saltwater inundated the tube during Sandy, and the damage was never fixed.

Cuomo concluded, at that time, that the project could not be changed, and the tunnel would have to be shut down for the planned 15 months.