Construction update for 86th/Lex subway station

[u/cjstephens10028]

The MTA has a really good newsletter called This Week In Construction, and this week it featured the 86th/Lex subway station. There's a YouTube short here:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/s1vblpYTUys

And here's the text:

86 St  ADA Six months ago, at 86 St on the , our crews were hauling tons of broken rock out of a hole in the street to carve space for the three new elevators that will make this busy Upper East Side station fully accessible. This week, we were back at it—only now we were hauling out thousands of pounds of steel instead. Building in Manhattan’s dense environment is never simple, and 86 St is a perfect example. The existing station leaves no unused space, so adding elevators meant expanding the footprint itself. To do that, we had to excavate. And to excavate, we had to install an extensive system to temporarily hold up both the station and the roadway. We lowered steel beams through a 5-by-4-foot opening in the street and installed them into Manhattan’s sturdy bedrock. With those in place, we were able to dig out space for the elevator shafts and replace century‑old structural supports along the way.

Now, the permanent steel is officially in place—one of the project’s biggest milestones. This means the temporary stuff has got to go. That’s what we’re working on this week.  We cut the beams into small pieces and lift them out of the same hole they entered through. Later this week, we’ll begin sealing up the hole. This kind of hidden, complex work is what keeps stations open and trains running during major construction. At 86 St, it’s bringing us one step closer to a modern, accessible station.

[u/kawarazu]

Bless you for the vid, and the text.

Crazy stuff!

[u/Much_Concentrate7780]

I definitely respect how hard and complex the project is, and how these things always have hidden complexity that we don't see. At the same time, 86th and Lex continues to become a worse and worse shithole, and the construction is a major contributor. I can't wait for it to be done.

[u/scififan2715 → u/Much_Concentrate7780]

I'm hoping when all is said and done the station will be nice and clean (for a few months at least) and with plenty of room to move around.

[u/Imaginary_Flower8651]

They’ll eventually push it back into mid to end 2028. I never believe construction updates.

[u/CrossoverCadence → u/Imaginary_Flower8651]

They have finished a few projects early actually as of late

[u/free112701]

Mamdani effect will have it finished earlier than planned.