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July 28, 2010
Legible version of the subway monitoring plan surfaces, shows arena wall less than 7' from subway; if vibrations get too intense, work must stop
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder has a must-read exclusive on the MTA's plans for monitoring construction of Bruce Ratner's arena.
How do you build an arena very close to six active subway lines?
Very, very carefully, apparently.
As a recently acquired document (excerpted at left; click to enlarge) shows, the foundation wall of the planned arena, at at the arena property line, would be less than seven feet from the wall of the IRT subway line, specifically the tracks for the 2 or 3 trains going north along Flatbush Avenue toward Manhattan.
That means some very careful monitoring is required, as described in plans first made public here.
Plans initially denied
On May 24, I wrote about a Subway Indemnity Agreement signed by Brooklyn Arena LLC and the New York City Transit Authority, not only must proceed "in a good and workmanlike manner" but also must be subject to a monitoring plan, thus protecting critical transit system assets.
That's crucial, because portions of subway tunnels next to the arena site were described in 2007 as in "critical condition" and required repair "in the immediate future" and the "near future"--repairs Forest City Ratner is now obligated to make, though the cost is unclear (and could generate a request for future public support).
But the plan, at least as reproduced in the document, was illegible.
And, when I filed a Freedom of Information Law request for a legible copy, I was told no such copy exists.
Airing a complaint
So I wrote about that absurd situation and, a few weeks later, unbidden, I received a package from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which contained hard copies of the documents at issue: four huge blueprint-style documents, about 44" by 36".
NoLandGrab: Interestingly, if you add the dimensions of the documents together (44" + 36"), the sum is almost exactly equal to the distance between the subway tunnel wall and the arena foundation. Coincidence?
Posted by eric at July 28, 2010 10:53 AM