Main Street Station Reconstruction Project Blasted Federal And State Investigations May Be Launched

The cavalcade of complaints at a task force meeting last week also triggered a series of questions that remained unanswered:
• No estimates of potential penalties to be levied against the TA’s contractor were available.
• Congressman Joseph Crowley questioned whether the project violated the rights of the physically handicapped, under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin, a member of the State Assembly Transportation Committee, is examining the station’s progress to determine if state laws and procedures are being violated.
• Councilwoman Julia Harrison said that the TA ignored her documented warnings concerning the contractor.
The station’s renewal project has been in the planning stage for well over a quarter century, and in the design stage since 1978.
Following the meeting, a visibly angry Queens Borough President Claire Shulman fired off a letter to TA President Lawrence Reuter, demanding an early meeting to resolve the station’s problems. Her request was joined by Crowley (D-Flushing), State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing), Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin (D-Flushing), and Councilwoman Julia Harrison (D-Flushing).
However, TA spokesman Bob Slovak said that agency engineers hoped to have all escalators fully operational by the end of this week. "Part of the problem," he said, "has been vandalism — unauthorized persons actuating the emergency ‘STOP’ button. We’re working with the police to deal with this problem."
Joseph Raskin, the TA’s assistant director of government affairs, told the meeting that unforeseen construction problems had prevented the efficient completion of the 49-month-old project. "With this project as an object lesson, we expect to widen the parameters of our oversight on future construction programs," he said.
But Crowley announced that he was asking his staff to investigate whether any ADA laws had been broken by the contractor — LaQuila Construction — since federal funds were used in the project.
He was concerned that with the continued breakdown of the station’s escalators and its non-functioning elevator, there were technical violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
McLaughlin, a member of the state Transportation Committee, agreed with Shulman and called the poor workmanship "inexcusable." He said that he is already analyzing the Main Street operation to determine whether there had been violations of the state law.
The 72-year-old station site is in the center of Flushing’s major transportation, commercial and shopping hub. Carrying 42,000 passengers daily, it lies at the juncture of 23 bus lines, a Long Island Railroad station, six major roadways, and four municipal parking lots.
Local officials charged that the problem-plagued project was creating massive transportation problems:
• The station’s crowded escalators are not working properly. CB 7’s District Manager Marilyn Bitterman said the three huge units work just half the time, making it difficult for bus passengers to catch a train in the morning, or to catch a bus at night. As if on cue, following the meeting, all three escalators broke down just as the evening rush hour began.
On one non-moving south escalator, frustrated passenger Rob Jiminez complained, "The only things that work on this station are the staircases."
• The highly-touted elevator is already 16 months behind schedule, according to Shulman. She has demanded the appointment of an outside consultant to speed installation of the elevator and to examine causes of the continued breakdowns of the station’s three escalators.
Her chief engineer, Michael Sinansky, told the packed meeting that since the TA has never admitted to operational problems, it was impossible to trust that agency’s in-house evaluation. It was also learned that the Main Street station manager is permanently posted at the Willet Point station.
• Potential safety hazards were highlighted by the legislators. Exposed, unprotected wiring was loosely hung on hooks on the station as well as along the three 70-foot escalator channels. One wire hung on the wall, just 7 feet above the ground.
In addition, the busy south and northwest sidewalk corners of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue have remained unpaved for nearly three years. Broken open to allow station repairs, the potholed corners were hastily patched with blacktop, creating walking hazards.
• Evidence of poor workmanship was found on the station, where heavy duct tape was used to hold loosened tiles affixed to the walls until they could be replastered.
• Bitterman said that the construction debris and uncollected garbage were strewn everywhere. She pointed to the mezzanine’s floor tiling that was already discolored by discarded food and drink. Poor station maintenance, she said, also allowed water to leak onto the mezzanine and station floors.
Compounding the legislator’s concerns, was Harrison’s charge that in 1996 she sent the MTA detailed information from the city’s data bank, which listed the performance records of contractors dealing with the city.
Harrison said that the city report revealed seven warning advisories concerning LaQuila, the TA’s current contractor. One, in particular, included past actions taken by the Transit Authority against the Main Street contractor which alleged 14 counts of "Offering a False Instrument for Degree."
Harrison said that the MTA dismissed her warning by declaring that the list had no relevance for the agency.
Following the meeting, a visibly angry Harrison told The Queens Courier, "I can only hope that the frustrations I experienced for almost six years with this project, in isolation from colleagues who were beguiled by the tempting promises of a quick fix to an aging station, will never be mine alone again."
State Senator Toby Stavisky said, "I remember attending meetings on these issues back in 1995. Assurances were made at that time that the modernization would be monitored by the Transit Authority, and I am astounded at the lack of oversight." The senator called on TA President Laurence Reuter to take a personal tour so that he could get a first hand view of conditions.
Unrenovated since 1928, when it was opened, the Main Street station repair schedules have been beset by a series of other delays:
• Station reconstruction has been scheduled for more than a quarter century.
• The project was finally placed in "design" stage in 1978, following years of delay.
• In 1983 the program was further postponed because the station design failed to comply with newly-enacted ADA laws requiring workable accessibility on mass transit for the physically challenged.
• In 1991 hearings were conducted by the MTA to determine the artistic format of the station.
• The MTA postponed the project again later in 1991 when New York City withheld a mandated $500 million contribution because of "fiscal constraints."
• Finally scheduled to start in 1994, it was postponed once again by the MTA due to the anticipated shortfall in city capital funds.
• Again approved to start in 1995, Councilwoman Harrison and a covey of community groups went to the state supreme Court in an unsuccessful effort to stop the project.
• The project finally began in mid-1996.