Harlem's 2nd Avenue Subway Dreams Boosted By Infrastructure Deal

EAST HARLEM, NY — The Second Avenue Subway's march into Harlem would get a big boost from the infrastructure bill that advanced in the Senate this week, majority leader Sen. Chuck Schumer said.

The $550 billion deal would include more than $10.7 billion for the MTA, to be spent on projects including the Second Avenue Subway, Schumer said Thursday. He did not specify how much of the money would go toward the subway.

The decades-old project calls for extending the Q line up to 125th Street — past its current terminus at 96th Street, which was completed in 2017. Along the way, two new stations at 106th and 116th streets will also be built, creating a brand new train line for the transit-starved East Side.

Though it seemed in jeopardy last year, funding is now back on the table after the MTA's budget deficit was reduced by the spring federal stimulus. Officials had expressed hope that President Biden's infrastructure bill would usher things along even further.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to take up the bipartisan bill, a key development after weeks of negotiations. The latest bill is a slimmed-down version of the $2.6 trillion deal originally proposed by the Biden administration, and must still pass the Senate and House to become law.

"Whether it’s the needs of the MTA, projects like Gateway, the Second Avenue subway, the East River Tunnels, Penn Access and others, this deal represents massive investments that will rebuild and revive the Empire State’s infrastructure," Schumer said in a statement.

The MTA also did not say how much funding would go toward the Second Avenue Subway, but said it would help fund the agency's 2020-24 capital plan, of which the extension was a key component.

In April, an MTA official told an East Harlem community board that the agency was pushing ahead with plans to seize more than a dozen privately-owned properties to make way for the subway.

Most of the properties that the agency needs are "three-story, four-story walk-ups that are largely vacant," Joe O'Donnell, an MTA public affairs director, told Community Board 11. The MTA needs them to build station entrances and construction shafts, among other uses.

To grab up the lots, the MTA will take advantage of the state's eminent domain law, where governments can take private properties if they will be redeveloped for public use. In most cases, the agency hopes to negotiate settlements with owners.

Once construction begins, the East Harlem extension will make use of a 10-block stretch of tunnel dating back to the 1970s that already exists below the neighborhood, between 110th and 120th streets. MTA leaders had initially hoped to open the extension in 2027, but that goal will likely be pushed back.

In January, Gov. Andrew Cuomo vowed that the state would complete the project, even as sources of funding remained murky.

Previous coverage:

• 2nd Avenue Subway Extension Pushing On Into Harlem, MTA Says
  
• 2nd Avenue Subway's East Harlem Extension To Move Forward: Cuomo
• Pandemic Delays 2nd Avenue Subway's Harlem Extension: Report