MTA board OKs $663 million contract for East Side Access project

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) board yesterday awarded Tutor Perini Corp. a $663 million contract to build and finish four platforms and eight tracks for the future MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) terminal underneath Grand Central Station.

The pact marks the final major contract for MTA's $10 billion East Side Access project, which is aimed at providing a faster commute from Long Island and Queens into the east side of Manhattan, agency officials said in a press release.

The contract calls for transforming two 1,143-foot-long caverns into a terminal station, with more than 12 miles of track work from Queens to Manhattan. Tutor Perini also will build elevators, escalators and staircases to and from the underground station and perform all architectural finishes through the caverns, MTA officials said.

Last month, Tutor Perini was awarded a contract worth up to $79 million to build a tunnel approach and rebuild a bridge in Sunnyside, Queens.

"With the award of these contracts, the eventual completion of East Side Access is starting to come into view, said Michael Horodniceanu, president of MTA Capital Construction Co., which is building the project. "This is the next chapter in the long history of Grand Central Terminal and the growth and development of New York City."

The work to be performed in Sunnyside includes excavation and construction of an approach structure that will allow the LIRR's existing tracks to connect to one of the four rail tunnels build below the Sunnyside Yard.

Scheduled for completion in December 2022, the East Side Access project also is expected to reduce crowding at Penn Station and nearby subway stations.


Map depicting MTA's East Side Access project
Source: Metropolitan Transportation Authority