By Philip Newman
Despite an accelerated construction schedule to complete the Second Avenue subway’s first phase by December the 86th Street station of the massive project was deserted this past Saturday, according to a top MTA official.
Michael Horodniceanu, chief of major projects of the MTA, told a transit agency committee Monday that he visited the 86th Street site at Second Avenue Saturday.
“It was obvious that they had no one on the job,” the MTA official said.
He said the Schiavone Construction Co. had around 60 workers on the job at the 96th Street station project Saturday.
“It now becomes my job to talk directly with the contractor to see why they did not have the appropriate personnel,” said Horodniceanu.
He said “staffing problems” were an “almost daily” occurrence at work sites of the new subway line.
The new line, running between 96th Street and 63rd Street, will carry an estimated 200,000 passengers and take pressure off the 4, 5 and 6 trains on the Lexington Avenue line. The MTA estimates that the Second Avenue subway will reduce crowding by 13 percent on the Lexington line, which transports 40 percent of the city’s straphangers every day.
