At least two weeks ahead of schedule, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) resumed normal subway service on New York City Transit's R Line on Monday morning, Sept. 15, 2014, reopening a Manhattan-Brooklyn route using the Montague Tunnel.
On Sunday, Sept. 14, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and MTA officials marked the reopening in a ceremony and ride under the rehabilitated subway tunnel, closed since Aug. 3, 2013 to repair extensive damage inflicted by Superstorm Sandy in late October 2012. Prior to its shutdown, the tunnel accommodated approximately 65,000 riders per day.
MTA said the $250 million project, funded largely by Federal Transit Administration money directed toward Sandy repair, was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. New components and signals were placed within the 4,000-foot tunnel structure, replacing corroded and dated materials.
MTA also has worked on a smaller stretch of tunnel, the Greenpoint Tube serving NYCT's G Line, which affected weekend ridership only. Other tunnels affected by Superstorm Sandy have yet to be addressed comprehensively under MTA's Fix & Fortify program.
Said Gov. Cuomo in a statement, "This tunnel is safer, stronger and more resilient than ever before, and everything on this section of the R train is new – new rails, new signals, new pumps and new power supplies."
MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast said, "New York's transit network suffered more damage during Sandy than anyone at the MTA has ever seen in our lifetimes. The effort required to rebuild the Montague Tube was nothing short of heroic. It took more than a year of round-the-clock reconstruction in difficult conditions, but we have restored the R train with a smoother and more reliable ride in a tunnel built to handle future climate risks. We are grateful to the Federal Transit Administration for funding this project as well as to the workers whose efforts made it happen."
The R train ran in two sections during most of the work. One train section operated in Brooklyn, from 95 St in Bay Ridge to Court St in downtown Brooklyn. The other operated from Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan to 71 Ave. in Forest Hills, Queens. On weekends, the R train operated in one section over the Manhattan Bridge but skipped six stops in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, MTA said.
Work on the Montague Tunnel included: a critical signal relay room relocation from track level to a higher floor in the Whitehall St. station complex; sealing a circuit breaker room in the tunnel providing power to the tracks with heavy-duty waterproofing and a submarine-quality door; installing emergency lights with battery backups; installing new power and antenna cable selected for their ability to withstand water inundation; and installing new pumping equipment with additional capacity within the tunnel, capable of removing more than 1,900 gallons of water per minute from the tunnel infrastructure.