Dey Street Pedestrian Concourse When completed in October 2011 the 400-ft. long Dey Street Concourse, running between Broadway and Church Streets, will be enable rider to transfer for free between all 11 subway lines. Skanska started work on a $17 million contract for finishes for the passageway and the R concourse and underpass in March 2010.

Under a separate $58 million contract WDF, Mount Vernon, N.Y., began building the Dey Street Head House and rehabilitating the 4 and 5 line station in August 2009. Completion is scheduled for March 2012.

The head house, located at the southwest corner of Broadway and Dey Streets, will provide a street level entrance to the Dey Street Concourse and the 4/5 southbound platform. The steel structure’s glass canopy and curtain wall is designed to direct sunlight into the station below.

4 and 5 Station Rehabilitation Work on the 4 and 5 line will rehabilitate the station’s platform and roof, add improved lighting, stairs and ADA accessibility while restoring historic elements such as mosaic and terra cotta tiles. New access routes to the platform from the adjacent Transit Center will relieve chronic crowding at the platform’s northern end caused by transfers to the A and C line.

The station’s entrance at Fulton Street, where the 4 and 5 line intersects the Aand C line, will be expanded and made ADA compliant. During construction plans called for the street loads supported by the entrance structure to be temporarily transferred to the top of the A and C tunnels as a point load.

Putting a point load on top of the tunnels is a little risky, says Ed Seaman, WDF senior vice president. WDF is working with the MTA on a new approach that would instead spread the load atop the tunnels.

Repair of the station’s roof will require removing the entire sidewalk and all the steel supporting the roof along sections of the west side of Broadway. “We need to break out the sidewalk and replace all the steel while making sure the buildings and subway structures do not move,” Seaman says.

Teamwork “The underlying theme on all these projects is that we as the client, our designer and the contractors are working together,” says Uday Durg, the MTA’s program executive. “It makes a difference.”

The good working relationship is helping Durg effectively manage and coordinate the multiple interfaces across the various contracts, one of the project’s biggest challenges.

Durg is also working with local businesses, the community boards and other local stakeholders. “Keeping them in the loop while we construct this large project goes a long way.”

While all the work proceeds the subways must remain operational. Horodniceanu likens the task to changing a tire while riding a bike.

“It’s tough,” Durg says. “But so far it has been a good experience.”