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'No Doubt' Second Avenue Subway Will Finish by December, Rep. Maloney Says

By Shaye Weaver | October 25, 2016 3:47pm
 Rep. Maloney gave the MTA an "A+" for its work on the Second Avenue Subway on Tuesday.
Rep. Maloney Gives the MTA an "A+" for its work on the Second Avenue Subway
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UPPER EAST SIDE — Rep. Carolyn Maloney has "no doubt" the Second Avenue Subway will be finished on time, she said on Tuesday after unveiling her report card giving the MTA an "A+" for its work.

She had threatened earlier this summer to give the MTA an "F" if it did not complete the project by its December deadline. Now with just over a month to go, Maloney has already made the call.

"The MTA tells me that as of Oct. 1, the project was 98 percent complete," she said during a press conference on Tuesday at the corner of Third Avenue and East 63rd Street.

"Now there is no doubt [that it will be finished]. The MTA has done an awesome job in sending this to completion. I know everybody likes to gripe about the MTA...but the Federal Transit Administration said that the best work in trains that they've seen in the nation has been the MTA."

MTA officials have continued to be optimistic about reaching their deadline, despite being behind schedule, as of late September, on testing of the line's systems and work on two subway stations at 72nd Street and 86th Street.

On Sept. 26, a consultant for the MTA said there were still 300 tests to complete before the line can open.

Related Reading:

► Everyone Agrees Second Avenue Subway Could Be Late, MTA Board Says

► VIDEO: MTA Begins Running Trains to Test Second Avenue Subway

Maloney said Tuesday those two stations are now 94 percent complete. The entrance to the 63rd Street station is 99 percent complete, the 96th Street station is 97 percent done, and systems in general are 94.5 percent complete, she added.

She also praised the MTA for reopening the pedestrian plaza at 63rd Street and Third Avenue, which had been closed by the agency for about a decade to use as a staging area for the Second Avenue Subway.

Maloney's report card measures the project's success based on a number of factors including communication with the public, tunnel construction, construction management, progress of station entrances and testing of equipment — all of which she gave an "A" this time around. 

In her last report, in May, she gave the entire project an "A-", including "Cs" for construction impact mitigation, its testing of equipment and for its transition to the East Harlem phase.

Tuesday's report card did not grade the MTA on its transition to the second phase.

"It's a good day...but we need to see this through to December as the line opens," Assemblyman Dan Quart said on Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the MTA, posted a picture of N, Q, R, and W train signs ready to be hung in the new stations.