Forest City to launch Sunday hours in railyard for at least three months; 6 am deliveries have begun

The latest Atlantic Yards two-week Construction Alert/Update, prepared by Forest City Ratner and distributed by Empire State Development, covers the weeks beginning September 12 and September 19, but was released yesterday, two days late.

The big news: work at the railyard will begin on Sundays for at least three months, starting this Sunday, and that arena site deliveries have begun at 6 am, an hour earlier than previously, and could continue for another year.

The railyard work came in a Supplemental Update (below):

Yard
New Information: Beginning on Sunday September 18, 2011, Construction work will take place on Sundays during the hours of 8:00AM – 4:30PM for a period of at least three months. The work being performed at this time will be confined to two areas:
• The first area will be the LIRR car shop for the installation of mini piles and structural support system.
• The second area of work will be located within Block 1121 Lot 42 (former Northeast Gas Station) for installation of lagging and tiebacks for the support of excavation.

The delivery information came near the end of the primary document:

Hunt has requested a permit to allow for deliveries from 6 AM to 7 AM to the Arena site
from the dispatch center. This work allows for an additional hour of deliveries to take place outside the neighborhood peak traffic patterns and reduce congestion and interference with the local traffic. The permit has been issued and is reviewed/re-authorized on a weekly basis The intention is to continue to permit deliveries during this timeframe through to completion of the Arena.

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The text below is all excerpted from the Construction Alert; I have bolded text that differs from that in the document two weeks ago.

Steel Erection

• The maintenance of the site to accommodate steel erection will continue during this period. Steel erection will continue near the intersection of Dean Street & Flatbush Avenue as well as along the 6th Avenue and Dean Street elevations throughout this reporting period.
• Primary roof steel erection will continue during this reporting period.
• The façade erector will continue the installation of erection clips on the Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue elevations during this reporting period. The façade erector will commence with the installation of erection clips along the 6th Avenue elevation this reporting period.
• The structural steel erector will work a second shift from September 12th through September 16th, and a Saturday day shift on September 10th and September 17th.

Façade Installation

• The installation of façade panels at the street level and at the Upper Concourse levels on Atlantic Avenue will continue this reporting period.
• The installation of curtain wall and curtain wall/lattice panels will commence on the Flatbush Avenue elevation during this reporting period. A portion of this installation is expected to start on a third shift this reporting period to allow for minimal interference with pedestrian and vehicular traffic on the Flatbush corridor. This permit is being submitted to DOT with the DOB crane permit for the area and this third shift is expected to start no earlier than September 19th.

Interior Build-out

• The masonry contractor will continue working at all levels during this reporting period. The masonry contractor will also be working in the network protector room and ConEd vault rooms.
• Precast concrete stadia erection will continue during this reporting period. Precast erection will be implemented on a second shift from September 12th through September 16th.

New subway entrance: Waterproofing & Fireproofing

The spray fireproofing will continue throughout this reporting period. The contractor performing this work will use temporary electric to power their equipment. The spray fire proofer will work a second shift beginning September 12th through September 16th in Quad “C”. The second shift may continue as needed from September 19th through September 23rd.

New subway entrance: Concrete

The new roof over the new fare array has been poured. Construction of the staircase is substantially complete. Concrete formwork for the foundation walls has commenced and once the steel erection is complete at the tip, the formwork to construct the concrete roof in this area will follow.

New subway entrance: Steel Erection

Steel erection for the main structure is substantially complete. Steel installation at the lower levels of the BMT mezzanine continues and is substantially complete. .. Due to site logistics, portions of this work may take place at night behind approved MPT and traffic will be restored every morning according to DOT stipulations.

Carlton Avenue Bridge

New MPT has been put in place for the south abutment soil excavation from Pacific Street, and excavation has begun. This work will continue during this reporting period, and will be followed by forming and pouring the foundation for the South Abutment.

Posillico/Tully has installed a test pile and will perform a load test for the north abutment during this reporting period. Once this test pile passes the load test, Posillico/Tully will start the installation of the mini-piles required to be installed to support the new north abutment.
Vibration Monitors, installed at the time of inception of work in the yard, are being monitored by an independent monitoring company and data is being analyzed by the project engineer. In addition, crack gauges have been installed in certain locations and surveys are being taken as directed by the engineer.

...Posillico/Tully has started working on the lagging and tieback work at the north east gas station location and start to lower the grade in order to make preparation for the drilling of the remaining SOE piles in this area. This work will be on-going for the next couple of months.

Replacement of Adjacent Water Mains and other Utility Work

• Stage one began in early August. The first work will include the installation of a distribution water main along the sidewalk of Flatbush, north of Atlantic. The work will be done at night (10 pm to 6 am) and will require partial closure of the sidewalk and the curb lane of traffic during the work hours.

The work will take two to three months in this location and then will move on southward and cross Flatbush. The bus stop at the west side of Flatbush, north of Pacific, has been removed by NYC DOT, per the approval of NYCTA. The trench for the work in the Flatbush sidewalk is completed and plated. Work this period will include the installation of pipe in the trenches. Trenches will be plated over every morning and sidewalks and travel lanes will be re-opened.

Over the next several weeks the Contractor will be continuing the work on three taps into the waters and sewer mains on Flatbush Avenue and Dean Streets. The Flatbush taps are complete and are awaiting DEP inspection. Work will begin on the Dean Street taps during the next two work periods. The excavation work at Dean Street requires the temporary removal of approximately 40’ to 60’ of the 16 foot fence on Dean Street. A temporary 8’ tall barrier consisting of plywood on Jersey barrier was installed to replace the 16’ fence and to serve as the construction fence during the work. The contractor will move the barrier out of the way when trenching occurs in the immediate area and will plate over and replace the barrier on a daily basis. Backfill and pavement restoration will be performed after all DEP inspections are complete.

Demolition

Demolition of 603 Dean is complete. Demolition of 768 Pacific and the remaining basement of 754 Pacific are expected to be completed within the next two week period Two decommissioned, cleaned oil tanks will be removed from the basement of 754 Pacific. The only work remaining at these sites will be the sorting of debris for recycling and backfilling. The extent of the hand and mechanical demolition has been approved by the DOB and BEST.

The permit process will begin to remove the remnant yards walls of a previously demolished building at 583 Dean Street.

Environmental Remediation

• Soil that has been classified as clean, contaminated or hazardous will be removed from the site as part of the excavation activities and brought to appropriate disposal locations.
• Excavation, cleaning and final removal of a previously unknown Underground Storage Tank (UST) will be completed during this reporting period. The UST will be removed in accordance with applicable FDNY and DEC regulations.

Traffic Mitigation Site Work

The northbound lanes of 4th Avenue were closed at Atlantic Avenue on July 31, 2011 with temporary MPT (see details below). During the next two-week period work will continue on curb extensions, lights, signals, signs and pavement striping to achieve the closure of the northbound traffic on 4th Avenue, north of Atlantic Avenue. This phase of the work is expected to take approximately 4 to 6 weeks. The MPT will be modified several times during the course of the work to maintain safe pedestrian passage across the intersection. The details of the MPT have been reviewed by the DOT. The DEP directed the contractor to Install a hydrant in lieu of the valve box that was in the original design.

Slight hurricane delays

The curb extension on Dean Street, west of Flatbush will continue during the next two week period. Work was put on hold while the contractor cleaned out catch basins and made other provision for the hurricane. The contractor may choose to perform this work during the daytime work hours behind MPT which has been approved by the DOT.

At the Pacific Street & 4th Avenue intersection, test pits revealed numerous private utility interferences including Con Ed and NYCTA cable. The DOT approved a modified curb profile utilities. Work will commence when Times Plaza is well underway.

Lingering issues

The traffic mitigation section also states:

At the Pacific and Flatbush curb extension, concrete paving was installed as far as possible outside the sidewalk bridge in front of 604 Pacific Street. The final sidewalk paving under the sidewalk bridge cannot be completed until the private owner makes repairs to his building and remove the protection. This phase of work is expected to be completed by the end of August.

(Emphases added)

The section on after-hours work states:

Work related to of the BMT structure and below grade concrete, steel and MEP work may be conducted on Saturdays, September 3rd and September 10th, during this reporting period. This will be in conjunction with the IRT Flagging GO scheduled for September 6, 7, 8 and 9th steel repair work at the northern vents. All such work will take place within the site and subway tunnel.

The above outdated mentions are signs that not too many people are looking carefully at these documents.


Supplemental Atlantic Yards Construction Alert 9-12-2011

FINAL Atlantic Yards Construction Alert 9-12-2011