What's coming at the Vanderbilt Yard? More columns needed to support roof, on first block, that will serve as platform for tower construction.

This is the seventh of ten articles on the 6/7/22 meeting of the Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation. The first concerned the affordable housing timetable. The second assessed an estimated 2031 completion date. The third addressed the impact of a potential Greenland default. The fourth concerned expectations of 421-a benefits. The fifth concerned the deadline for the Urban Room. The sixth addressed timing for the school. The eighth discussed community impacts of construction. The ninth concerned plans for B12/B12 affordable housing. The tenth concerned the Open Meetings Law.

Construction at the first of two blocks of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Vanderbilt Yard is expected to start on Monday, June 20, as has been announced.

From presentation (at bottom)

At the meeting, Scott Solish of Greenland USA, which owns nearly all of master developer Greenland Forest City Partners, explained the planned work.

It starts in the area of B5, the building site just east of Sixth Avenue between Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street, part of Block 1120.

"What you see in green are new columns that need to be that need to be installed to support the roof that will be poured overhead," he said, indicating the slides at right. "So we'll be working in the yard between the existing tracks.

That means the construction crews must coordinate with the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), which is still sending trains from the storage yard, the railyard block (Block 1121) one block east, west through Block 1120 to Atlantic Terminal, the Brooklyn terminus.

The green indicates where the workers will pour and install additional shear walls and column. 

The area marked in purple is known as "the bump," existing terra firma that will be excavated prior to installing the columns and retaining walls along Atlantic Avenue.

After the columns are installed, then comes a roof on top. That will occur in three sections, including sites for the three towers over the block: B5, B6, and B7.

LIRR train going from Block 1120 to terminal

Construction question

Director Gib Veconi asked if separate contractors were working on the platform and on B5 or if it's being done by the same firm. (At that time, no contractor had been named, but the contractors for the platform were revealed in another document, as I wrote today.)

"It can be done by the same firm and it can be done by different firms," Solish said, noting that they saw the "platform contract as a single contract done by one firm"--actually two--"and then the vertical buildings can be done by different firms through a segregation of those teams."

The light gray in the third image, above, is the outline of B5, aka 700 Atlantic Avenue. Once the platform is done, those working on that building can start vertical construction.

Even as construction of three towers proceeds--note that Greenland is fuzzy about starting B6 and B7, given the uncertainty of the expiring 421-a tax break--underground work will continue, he said, "installing the final mechanical systems, plumbing systems, fire protection sprinkler systems, ventilation systems,"

What seems to be sticking up in the center is a roof over a street-level ramp at Sixth Avenue. B5, he said would have that "kind of incorporated through the ground floor. So just it's a very tight complex site that's been fully designed and vetted with design professionals and signed off on by the [LIRR] under their own processes.... That driveway in that ramp remain in place and become kind of an enclosed tunnel for the railroad sole purpose of driving vehicles in and out of the yard."

Block 1121, where trains are stored/serviced

Solish confirmed, in response to a question, that there would be no parking underneath the building. 

(Indeed, there's no space.)

LIRR questions

Director Drew Gabriel asked if the LIRR has 24-hour access.

Yes, said Solish, noting security and fire prevention teams.

Bottom line

At the end of the slideshow is an image of the three completed buildings. 

Solish said his company was excited about getting started on this phase. The ending date, however, remains uncertain, as is the fate of the final three railyard towers, over Block 1121.

Note: the names of the platform contractors were not described at the meeting, but, as I write separately, they were disclosed in a separate document: China Construction of America and its sibling Plaza Construction, both owned by a state-owned company.