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REAL ESTATE
AND
NEW YORK, AUGUST 21, 1915
â– llllllllllllllilllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllH
PROGRESS ON QUEENS PLAZA STATION
â–
I Seventy-five Per Cent Completed —Trains Will Radiate from
I Here to All Parts of the Borough—Subway Contracts Held Up
1
THE latest vie-w of the Queensboro
Plaza Station, Long Island City, the
big central transfer station from which
the transportation lines now being con¬
structed will radiate in four directions
over the Borough of Queens has been
received from the Public Service Com¬
mission, and shows the station as it will
appear from the offices of the Chamber
of Commerce of the Borough of Queens,
It is calculated that the entire struc¬
ture, exclusive of station finish work,
will be completed by October 7th.
Nearly 75 per cent, of the work is
already done. The Snare & Triest Con¬
struction Co., which is in charge of the
to Grand Central station on the present
subway will be approximately six min¬
utes, or less than it now takes to go
from Borough Hall, Brooklyn, to Park
Row, New York.
From this point rapid transit lines will
radiate in all directions as follows:
(1) To the north, a three-track ele¬
vated line through Jackson avenue to
Second avenue to Ditmars avenue, As¬
toria, to bs operated jointly by the Inter¬
borough and the Brooklyn Rapid Tran¬
sit Companies. Astoria will be only 13
minutes from Grand Central Station,
(2) To the east, across Diagonal
street and over the Sunnyside Yards to
Thomson avenue and Greenpoint ave-
the Plaza, between the station and Jack¬
son avenue, the majority of the plans
have already been approved, so that the
steel can be ordered. For the structure
along the Diagonal street viaduct over
Sunnyside yard, connecting the Plaza
with Section 3 of Routes Nos. 36 and 37,
a portion of the shop drawings have
been sent in for approval during the
past two weeks.
The steel work for the Plaza station
is completed, so that the station finish
work can be undertaken as soon as the
concrete covering the station is poured.
This will enable the station finish work
and the erection of steel across Sunny¬
side yard to proceed concurrently. It is
work, has employed on the a/erage of
114 men daily. The cost of the work
will be $884,859.
The picture accompanying above
shows the connection from the station
to the roadway of the bridge which was
proposed for the operation of the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit subway trains
of the Broadway-59th street line. Since
the sketch was made, however, the
Public Service Commission and the
Board of Estimate have decided on the
use of tunnels under the East River just
north of the Queensboro Bridge, so that
in the final construction of the station
this connection with the bridge roadway
will be changed to connect with the
tunnels.
The station on the Bridge Plaza will
be 480 feet long, with two levels, each
having four tracks, or eight tracks i:t
all. The lower level of the statiun will
be for trains to Manhattan, while the
upper level will be for trains to Astoria,
Corona and to Brooklyn. The north
platforms on both decks will be for the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit train?, while the
south platforms on both sides will be
for tlic Queensboro subway and Second
avenue trains of the Interborough. The
station will have entrances on North
and South Jane streets, at Crescent and
Prospect streets. The entrances will
lead to a mezzanine floor and al" ove will
be the two levels of the station, all
trains on the same deck going in the
same direction.
The express running time from this
station through the Queemboro subway
nue to Woodside, and Roosevelt avenue
to Elmhurst and Corona, a three-track
line, to be operated jointly by the Inter¬
borough and the Brookyn Rapid Transit
Companies. This line will be continued
out Roosevelt avenue from Corona into
Flushing and Bayside. Corona and Elm¬
hurst will be 15 to 18 minutes from
Grand Central station.
(3) To the south will be the extension
of the Queensboro subway from its
mouth at Van Alst and 4th street, to be
operated by the Interborough in con¬
nection with the present and proposed
subways in Manhattan. Also the pro¬
posed extension of the elevated lines of
the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co., known
as the Queensboro Bridge-Crosstown
line, will run southward from the Bridge
Plaza, connecting with all the elevated
lines in Brooklyn, and giving a direct
north and south route to Coney Island.
(4) To the west, a cross the East
River into Manhattan, will operate the
trains of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit,
connecting with the 59th street. Seventh
avenue and Broadway subways, and also
the extension of the Second avenue ele¬
vated line of the Interborough.
Progress on the Queens Plaza Station.
Shop drawings for the station on the
Queensboro Bridge Plaza have all been
cl-iecked and filed and the steel erected.
On Jackson avenue, from the Plaza to
Section 2 of Routes Nos. 36 and 37. at
Beebe and Second avenue, shop draw¬
ings have all been approved and the
steel fabricated. At the easterly end of
not anticipated that there will be any
delay in operation either to Astoria or
Corona on account of the steel work.
Controversy Over Contracts.
All the rapid transit construction con¬
tracts prepared by the Commission since
September, 1910, have been unit price
contracts. The various items of work
are set forth in great detail, and bids are
received on from probably 150 to 200
items entering into the work. In a
work so complicated as rapid transit
railroad construction in city streets it is
impossible to forecast every item that
may enter into the work.
All the unit price contracts of the
commission since the change from lump
sum to unit prices have contained a pro¬
vision, known as Article XII, provid¬
ing that if any work was not suscepti¬
ble of classification that it should be
done and paid for at cost plus 10 per
cent. In view of the great number of
unit prices and the fact that the great
bulk of the work is comprised in the
units of excavation, steel and concrete,
.'Krticle XII is practically restricted to
a very small amount of incidental work.
With two years' experience under the
unit price contracts it was found that
the practical working of Article XII
could be greatly improved if an alter¬
native method was allowed, whereby the
chief engineer, with the approval of the
commission, could fix unit or lump
sum prices for incidental work as it arose
in lieu of the percentage plan. One of
(Continued on Page 311.)