East Side Access

East Side Access is a public works project in New York City that will extend the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) from its Main Line in Queens into a new station under Grand Central Terminal on Manhattan's East Side. A project of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the new station and tunnels are tentatively scheduled to start service in December 2022, some 15 years behind schedule. The project's estimated construction cost has risen nearly threefold from the planned $3.5 billion to $11.1 billion , making it one of the world's most expensive underground rail-construction projects.
East Side Access is based on transit plans from the 1950s, though a terminal on Manhattan's East Side was first proposed in 1963. The planned LIRR line was included in the 1968 Program for Action of transit improvements in the New York City area. Lack of funds prevented the construction of any part of the connection other than the 63rd Street Tunnel under the East River.
Plans for the LIRR connection were revived in the late 1990s. The project received federal funding in 2006, and construction began the following year. The tunnels on the Manhattan side were dug from 2007 to 2011, and the connecting tunnels on the Queens side were completed in 2012. Afterward, work began on other structures related to the line, such as the new LIRR platforms at Grand Central, ventilation and ancillary buildings, communication and utility systems, and the supporting rail infrastructure in Queens.
The new terminal will contain eight tracks and four platforms in a two-level station below street level. It is being built in conjunction with several other expansion projects across the LIRR, including an additional track along parts of the LIRR's Main Line and a new Sunnyside station in Queens. For many riders, the new terminal is planned to remove or reduce the need for subway transfers, as many office jobs are in the Financial District and Midtown East sections of Manhattan.
Description.
Route.
Extending between Sunnyside Yard in Queens and Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, the East Side Access project is creating an LIRR branch from its Main Line through new track connections at Harold Interlocking within Sunnyside Yard, and through the lower level of the existing 63rd Street Tunnel under the East River. A storage yard adjacent to Sunnyside Yard is also being built, connecting to the 63rd Street Tunnel via a loop. In Manhattan new tunnels begin at the western end of the 63rd Street Tunnel at Second Avenue, curving south under Park Avenue and entering a new LIRR terminal beneath Grand Central. Excluding storage tunnels, the project is about long, consisting of of new route in Queens, of preexisting route under the 63rd Street Tunnel, and of new route in Manhattan.
On the Queens side, four tunnels merge into two tracks and enter the lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel. Three of them (Tunnels A, B/C, and D) will connect to the busy Harold Interlocking, splitting off the Main Line. A fourth tunnel on a lower level will connect to the Midday Storage Yard. The Midday Storage Yard, located to the northwest of the existing Sunnyside Yard, comprises and will contain 24 storage tracks once completed. Tutor Perini is constructing the $291 million yard just south of the existing Harold Interlocking.
The line would then fan out into a bi-level station under Grand Central Terminal with eight tracks, four on each level. South of the station, the four tracks on each level will merge into two storage tracks, with one in each cavern on each level. These storage tracks, which extend under Park Avenue south to 38th Street, will be able to store one , 12-car train. The storage tracks were not part of the original proposal, as they were added in a 2008 modification to the plans for East Side Access.
The project also includes the construction of several ventilation plants. One is located at 44th Street, near the Yale Club of New York City, while another is located at 50th Street east of Madison Avenue. Ventilation facilities are also located on Park Avenue at 38th Street and at 55th Street, as well as on 63rd Street at York Avenue and at 2nd Avenue.
Station.
The new LIRR terminal at Grand Central, located 14 stories below ground, will have with four platforms and eight tracks, plus a new retail and dining concourse with 25 retail spaces. There will be two caverns containing one platform and two tracks on each of two levels; a mezzanine would be located between the two platform levels. The LIRR terminal would initially be accessed via stairwells, 22 elevators, and 47 escalators connecting to the existing food court at the lower level of Grand Central. The number of elevators in this terminal would exceed the 19 escalators in the remainder of the LIRR system combined.
The MTA originally planned to build and open additional entrances at 44th, 45th, 47th, and 48th Streets. The station would connect to existing entrances at Grand Central North. The new LIRR station would also contain entrances at 335 Madison Avenue, near the southeast corner with 44th Street; at 270 Park Avenue and 280 Park Avenue near 47th and 48th–49th Streets, respectively; and at 347 Madison Avenue, on the east side of the avenue at 45th Street. An entrance on 46th Street between Lexington and Park Avenue was also built, connecting with Grand Central North. However, the MTA later announced its intent to defer construction of an entrance at 48th Street because the owner of 415 Madison Avenue wanted to undertake a major construction project on the site. The MTA would also connect the new station to the existing 47th Street cross-passage. The escalators would be up to long and descend more than . The escalators and elevators would be among the few privately operated escalators and elevators in the entire MTA system.
Proposed service patterns.
Trains are expected to run 24 hours a day. Plans call for 24 trains per hour to run to Grand Central during peak morning hours, with an estimated 162,000 passenger trips to and from Grand Central on an average weekday. Bilevel rail cars, such as the LIRR's C3 fleet, would not be able to serve Grand Central because of low height clearances in the 63rd Street Tunnel. The project is likely to increase passenger loads on the already overcrowded IRT Lexington Avenue Line and on surface bus routes on the East Side. At the same time, the project will reduce the load on rush-hour E train service between Pennsylvania Station and Midtown East and 7 train service across the East River.
Controversies.
Costs and construction delays.
The project's estimated cost has increased from $3.5 billion when first proposed to $4.3 billion in 1999, $5.3 billion in 2003, $6.3 billion in 2004, $7.2 billion in 2008, $8.4 billion in 2012, and either $9.7 billion or $10.8 billion in 2014. By 2017, the projected cost was either $12 billion or $10.2 billion, making it the most expensive construction project of its type in the world by either measure. The MTA budgeted a total of $10.178 billion to the project over five 5-year capital programs, up to and including the 2015–2019 capital program. Of these, 27% are federal funds and the other 73% are local funds. , the MTA had spent $7.397 billion of the available funding. , the project was expected to cost $11.1 billion, an increase from a previous estimate of $10.2 billion. The project had $10.3 billion in funding, which allowed construction to continue through 2020. The state legislature had to approve an additional $798 million to allow construction to be completed, but this had not been approved by late 2019.
The completion date for the project has also been pushed back multiple times. Once planned to be operational by 2009 at a cost of $4.3 billion, East Side Access was then rescheduled to open in 2017, 2016, 2018, 2019, September 2023, and then either December 2023 or late 2023. However, , the MTA was looking to start passenger service in December 2022, at an estimated cost of $11.1 billion. , the MTA had a "target revenue service" date of May 2022 (whereupon construction would be essentially complete), while the line was planned to open to the public in December 2022. The timeline was only slightly delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, although social distancing measures related to the pandemic could potentially delay the timeline more.
In 2012, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT)'s Inspector General announced that it wanted an audit done on the project, after the USDOT learned of the fourteen-year delay in the completion date and the more-than-100% cost increase. In 2015, the USDOT's Deputy Principal Assistant Inspector General for Auditing and Evaluation, Joseph W. Come, testified before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's Subcommittee on Transportation and Public Assets. Come said that several New York City transportation projects also experienced significant delays and cost overruns. This was due to a variety of factors, such as fraud, poor management, and a lack of oversight.
"The New York Times" reported in 2017 that the project was slated to become the most expensive of its kind in the world. With an estimated cost of $12 billion, or approximately $3.5 billion per mile ( billion per kilometer) of new tunnel, the East Side Access tunnels were seven times as expensive as comparable railroad tunnels in other countries. Over the years, the projected cost of East Side Access had risen by billions of dollars due to unnecessary expenses. Contractors for the MTA were paid more than those working in other cities, even though that provided no construction benefits. Planning for East Side Access cost upward of $2 billion, and planning for MTA projects in general also made up a more significant part of the cost than in other cities' projects. In addition, politicians and trade unions had forced the MTA to hire more workers than were needed. In 2010, an accountant had found that the project was hiring 200 extra workers, at a cost of $1,000 per worker per day, for no apparent reason. The bidding process for MTA construction contracts also raised costs because, in some cases, only one or two contractors would bid on a project. Similar construction projects in New York City, such as the Second Avenue Subway and 7 Subway Extension, had been more expensive than comparable projects elsewhere for the same reasons, even though other cities' transit systems faced similar, or greater, problems compared to the MTA. Other delays were attributed to the fact that dozens of contracts, some of which conflicted with each other, were bid out separately. Cost increases also occurred due to changing the design while construction was underway; ordering components that were the wrong size; failing to cooperate with other transit agencies in Sunnyside Yard; and making infeasible construction-timeline estimates.
In September 2018, in an effort to alleviate the high costs and shorten delays, the LIRR hired Arthur R. Troup, who previously worked in high-level positions at Atlanta's and Washington, D.C.'s rapid transit systems, as the new leader for the East Side Access project.
Incidents and accidents.
Several major accidents have occurred during construction, and as a result, East Side Access has been cited for numerous safety violations. In late 2011, a construction worker died after a tunnel collapsed on him. In October 2014, a contractor who was digging wells on the Queens side accidentally punctured the subway tunnel underneath, grazing an F train with passengers inside.
History.
Origins.
The East Side Access project is based on regional planning proposals that were first brought up in the 1950s. In March 1954, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) issued a $658 million construction program. The proposal included a tunnel for the Second Avenue Subway, which would cross the East River between 76th Street in Manhattan and Astoria in Queens before continuing onto the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)'s Main Line in Queens. The 76th Street tunnel proposal resurfaced in 1963, though the location of the tunnel was changed several times thereafter. In 1965, the NYCTA finally decided to construct the subway tunnel at 63rd Street.
The first proposals to bring LIRR service to a terminal in eastern Midtown Manhattan arose in 1963. To facilitate planning for this terminal, a third track was added to the plans for the 63rd Street subway tunnel in April 1966. The track would serve LIRR trains to east Midtown, alleviating train traffic into Penn Station on Manhattan's west side while integrating the LIRR with the subway. A fourth track was added to the plans in August 1966 after it was determined that LIRR trains would be too large to run on subway tracks. This amendment increased the number of LIRR tracks to two, and provided segregated tracks for the LIRR and the subway.
In February 1968, the NYCTA's parent company, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, released the Program for Action, which proposed numerous improvements to subway, railway, and airport service in the New York metropolitan area. The plan included a new LIRR terminal at a proposed Metropolitan Transportation Center at Third Avenue and 48th Street in East Midtown. It also included connections to Grand Central Terminal, with a new northern entrance leading to the center, and the Second Avenue Subway, among other transit services. The new LIRR line was to branch off from existing lines in Sunnyside, Queens and enter Manhattan using the new two-level 63rd Street Tunnel. The upper level was to be used by the New York City Subway's 63rd Street lines and the lower level was to be used by the LIRR. According to renderings of the transportation center, the mezzanine would be placed above four island platforms and eight tracks, which would be split evenly across two levels, similar to the structure under construction at Grand Central.
Construction on the project began in 1969. Four prefabricated sections of the 63rd Street Tunnel were constructed under the East River, the first of which was delivered in May 1971. That first section was lowered into place on August 29, 1971, and the last section was lowered on March 14, 1972. The double-deck, tunnel under the East River was "holed through" on October 10, 1972, with the separate sections of tunnels being connected. The estimated cost of the project was $341 million, and the MTA applied for $227 million in Federal funds.
The construction of the terminal was opposed by the residents of the Turtle Bay neighborhood, where the terminal was planned to be located, as it would have changed the character of the neighborhood. Turtle Bay residents wanted the terminal moved to Grand Central. They also disliked the proposed traffic congestion the new terminal would bring. The MTA contended that its studies had shown that Third Avenue was the only feasible place to put the terminal, and there would have been too great of a concentration of rail lines at Grand Central. It concluded that having the LIRR going to Grand Central would further strain the Lexington Avenue Line. If it were on Third Avenue, passengers would have been more inclined to use the Second Avenue Subway, which was partially under construction at the time. On April 16, 1973, a Federal directive directed New York State to consider expanding and modernizing Grand Central before building the new terminal under Third Avenue.
Preliminary planning for the Metropolitan Transportation Center had been completed by January 1975. Due to continued opposition to the Transportation Center, a "Grand Central Alternative" was published in September 1976. It called for the LIRR to use Grand Central Terminal's lower level instead. The MTA's board of directors voted to use Grand Central as the terminal for the proposed LIRR route in 1977.
Plans stalled.
Due to the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis, the LIRR project was canceled long before the tunnel was completed. "The New York Times" noted that the lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel was still under construction by 1976, even though "officials knew that the tunnel would never be used." Richard Ravitch, the MTA chairman, said that to stop the work was impossible or so costly as to make it impractical subsequent to the construction of the subway portion." The lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel was completed along with the upper subway level. The western end of the tunnel lay dormant under Second Avenue at 63rd Street for three decades. By the time that construction on the LIRR tunnel level stopped, the tunnel was built for a distance of . The 8,600-foot "tunnel to nowhere" was completed "largely for structural reasons — to support the subway tunnel above."
The 63rd Street subway line and LIRR tunnel were completed as far as 29th Street in Long Island City, Queens, with the subway level of the tunnel opening in 1989. The LIRR tunnel remained unused beneath the subway tracks. In 1994, work began to extend the 63rd Street subway tunnel east to connect to the Queens Boulevard subway line; the LIRR tunnel was also extended east, under 41st Avenue in Queens to the west side of Northern Boulevard in Queens. The subway connector was opened to full-time F train service in December 2001.
Plans revived.
Plans were made in 1995 to bring LIRR service to East Midtown, and had resurfaced by the turn of the century. At the time, the MTA was quoted as saying that the LIRR East Side connection would not be completed within the next generation. Two years later, in 1997, U.S. Senator Al D'Amato started petitioning for an allocation of federal money to connect the LIRR to Grand Central. New York Governor George Pataki had previously proposed completing the project, but D'Amato's support, as well as the promise of financial backing, increased the likelihood that construction would actually commence. At the time, if everything went favorably, the LIRR link could open by 2010. By that time, the LIRR was the busiest commuter railroad in the United States, with an average of 269,400 passengers each weekday in 1999. As of 1998, there were almost 1.77 million jobs in Manhattan. An increasing number of these jobs were white-collar "office" jobs, with most of these new jobs in East Midtown. Penn Station, located on the West Side, was operating at capacity due to a complex track interlocking and limited capacity in the East River Tunnels.
In 1999, the MTA proposed a $17 billion five-year capital budget. This budget included a $1.6 billion LIRR connection to Grand Central, as well as several subway extensions. The project's final environmental impact assessment (FEIS) was released in March 2001. The FEIS reviewed two key options for bringing LIRR service to Grand Central. The first option was to connect the tunnels to the existing lower level at Grand Central, while the second option was to build an entirely new station underneath the Metro-North Railroad's existing upper- and lower-level platforms at Grand Central. The MTA ultimately recommended selecting the second option because it was cheaper and less disruptive to Metro-North service. Two months later, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) gave a favorable "Record of Decision", a mark of approval, to East Side Access after reviewing the project's FEIS.
After the September 11, 2001, attacks, the MTA announced plans to accelerate the timeline for constructing East Side Access. LIRR president Kenneth J. Bauer stated, "The incident of September 11 shows the importance of East Side Access to a greater degree. If something happened at the East River tunnel, you wouldn't be able to run trains to Penn Station." The MTA and Governor Pataki supported East Side Access and the Second Avenue Subway, both of which involved building new railroad infrastructure on the East Side. In 2002, Congress passed a bill that allocated $132 million for infrastructure projects in New York State, of which $14.7 million was to go toward funding East Side Access. Approval of a final design for East Side Access was granted in 2002, and the first properties for East Side Access were acquired in 2003.
In 2004, some business owners in Midtown announced their opposition to a proposed 16-story ventilation building at 50th Street east of Madison Avenue. They stated that the building would cause pollution and that it could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks. In particular, Catholic Archbishop Cardinal Edward Egan of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York was concerned about East Side Access's impact on St. Patrick's Cathedral, which faced Fifth Avenue with its back on Madison Avenue north of 50th Street. Despite this, the MTA affirmed its plans for the ventilation tower at that location. After continued opposition from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and other nearby entities, the MTA reduced the size of the building and relocated the structure's cooling towers.
Construction progress.
Funding for MTA capital projects such as East Side Access, the Second Avenue Subway, and the 7 Subway Extension were included in the Rebuild and Renew Transportation Bond Act of 2005. As part of this act, the state would take on $2.9 billion in debt to issue bonds to fund these projects. Voters ultimately approved the bond issue by a margin of 55% to 44%. The federal government committed to provide $2.6 billion to help build the project by signing a full funding grant agreement in December 2006. The construction contract for a tunnel in Manhattan westward and southward from the dormant lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel to the new station beneath Grand Central Terminal was awarded in July 2006. The contract went to Dragados/Judlau, a joint American–Spanish venture whose American headquarters were in College Point, Queens, close to the East Side Access site. The total contract award was $428 million and used two large tunnel boring machines. After Hurricane Sandy flooded the East River Tunnels between Queens and Penn Station in 2012, officials prioritized the construction of East Side Access so that LIRR trains could be diverted to Grand Central, allowing the East River Tunnels to be renovated.
Manhattan side.
Work on the Manhattan side included building a new 8-track train station with storage tracks extending to 38th Street. North of the station, the tunnels would connect to the 63rd Street Tunnel's lower level. The new station would be housed in two gigantic caverns blasted out of the Manhattan schist rock formation under the station. A three-level structure was being built in each cavern, with one train platform and two tracks each on the top and bottom levels. A passenger concourse was being constructed between each cavern's upper and lower levels. An upper-level concourse, accessed by a series of stairs, elevators, and escalators, would replace ten tracks on the west side of Metro-North's Madison Yard. The cavern structure is located under the Park Avenue Viaduct, which surrounds Grand Central Terminal, while the storage tracks are located under the Park Avenue Tunnel, which is located south of Grand Central Terminal.
The track connections from the new station to the 63rd Street Tunnel were excavated using tunnel boring machines. The first machine was delivered in May 2007. Dragados/Judlau created a launch chamber for the tunnel boring machines under Second Avenue at 63rd Street in Manhattan using a controlled drill-and-blast method, then assembled and launched each 640-ton machine. The first tunnel boring machine was launched westbound then southbound from the 63rd Street Tunnel in September 2007, and it reached Grand Central Terminal in July 2008. The second machine began boring a parallel tunnel in December 2007 and had completed its tunnel at 37th Street on September 30, 2008. Geocomp Corporation was hired to monitor the boring, using a battery of instruments to record vibration, ground settlement and any tilting or drift suffered by the tunnel boring machines. The instruments include inclinometers, extensometers, seismographs, observation wells, dynamic strain gauges, tilt meters and automated motorized total stations with prismatic targets. The tunnel boring machines bored an average of per day. Cross-connections between the tunnels were created under Park Avenue, between 49th and 51st Streets, by controlled drill-and-blast. The work began in mid-July 2008 and required between six and eight months to complete.
In April 2008, the MTA awarded Dragados/Judlau another contract. The $506 million contract was for excavating caverns for the three-level platform structures, mezzanine, escalators, passageways, and track crossovers. The MTA gave Gramercy Group Inc. the $38.9 million contract to reconfigure part of Madison Yard in March 2009. In September 2009, the MTA awarded Yonkers Contracting Company a $40.8 million contract to demolish a building at 47 East 44th Street and construct a ventilation plant & concourse entrance on the building site, along with constructing a station entrance at an existing office tower at 245 Park Avenue (at East 46th Street). Smaller contracts for electrical installations and structural repairs were also awarded in 2008. In 2010, the New York City Business Integrity Commission found that a subcontractor for the East Side Access project was involved with an organized crime family. The subcontractor, who had been hired to haul away the dirt from the excavation process, was replaced.
In July 2011, after the tunnel boring machines finished drilling through the Grand Central station box, they were left in place under 38th Street and Park Avenue, as it was more economical than disassembling them in Queens and selling them for scrap, which could have added $9 million to the project's final cost. The next step in construction was to make cast-in-place concrete sections to create the tunnel lining. Each tunnel was in diameter, with an average depth of beneath street level.
In September 2014, the MTA opened a pocket park, at 48 East 50th Street between Madison and Park Avenues, created along with a $97 million ventilation facility at that location. The pocket park, known as 50th Street Commons, has a capacity of 100 people standing, or 40 people sitting down. The park, containing abundant greenery along a granite backdrop with tables and chairs, was meant to reduce noise pollution from the ventilation facility, which also served as an emergency exit.
On October 26, 2015, a seating area in Grand Central Terminal's lower-level dining concourse was closed in order to build structural framework that would allow for the construction of stairways and escalators between the concourse and new LIRR station. This was deemed as a major milestone in the construction of East Side Access by Dr. Michael Horodniceanu, President of MTA Capital Construction. On November 10, 2015, a groundbreaking ceremony was held to celebrate the emergence of the project into Grand Central Terminal.
On January 27, 2016, the final major contract for the construction of East Side Access was awarded to Tutor Perini Corporation. The contract was for the construction of four railroad platforms and eight tracks for the new Grand Central Terminal. The first tracks inside the 63rd Street Tunnel were laid in September 2017. The pre-cast platforms inside Grand Central Terminal were completed in May 2018, followed by the completion of the tracks in August 2018. The MTA also started installing escalators between the lower concourse and the platform mezzanine. Beginning in April 2018, the MTA began conducting site tours of the project; it had given 35 tours by September 2018. In advance of the planned deconstruction of 270 Park Avenue above East Side Access, the MTA and 270 Park Avenue's owner JPMorgan Chase signed an agreement in July 2019, in which JPMorgan agreed to ensure that the deconstruction of 270 Park Avenue would not disrupt the timeline of East Side Access.
Queens side.
Previous work extending subway service through the upper level of the 63rd Street Tunnel to lines in Queens also extended the lower level to a point west of Northern Boulevard, across from the Sunnyside Yard. Work in Queens included extending the tunnel under Northern Boulevard and boring four tunnels under Sunnyside Yard. This was a particularly delicate and expensive task due to the existence of the elevated BMT Astoria Line and the underground IND Queens Boulevard Line directly above. In addition, the existing tunnel bell mouth west of Northern Boulevard was expanded to serve as the staging area for the Manhattan work, bringing in workers, equipment and supplies and bringing out the muck and debris from excavation. A temporary narrow-gauge railway and a conveyor belt system were constructed behind the tunnel boring machines and through the 63rd Street Tunnels to the Queens bell mouth. Due to its shape, the Queens work site was nicknamed the "Q-tip".
Pile Foundation Construction Company built an $83 million cut structure, which extends the tracks under Northern Boulevard into the Sunnyside Yard. It created an area that served as both the launch chamber for soft-bore Queens tunnels, connecting the 63rd Street line to the main LIRR branches, and an interlocking and emergency exit and venting facility. The cut was then covered with a deck. In August 2009, Perini Corp. was awarded a $144 million contract to reconfigure the Harold Interlocking, increasing its capacity to accommodate trains bound for Grand Central Terminal and to construct new yard lead tracks to allow trains to enter the storage yards. Smaller contracts for structural work, environmental monitoring, and data measurement were also awarded. Some Amtrak buildings in Sunnyside Yard were demolished to make room for the East Side Access portals in Queens.
In September 2009, the MTA awarded Granite-Traylor-Frontiere Joint Venture a $659.2 million contract to employ two 500-ton slurry tunnel boring machines to create the tunnels connecting the LIRR Main Line and the Port Washington Branch to the 63rd Street Tunnel under 41st Avenue. The four tunnels, with precast concrete liners, total in length. The contract included a $58 million option to dig three tunnel pits and three emergency shafts, as well as complete an open cut. The two custom-built slurry TBMs, which could dig through several types of earth, were the first such machines to be used in the New York City area.
The two tunnel boring machines began digging on the Queens side in April 2011. On December 22, 2011, breakthrough was achieved in Tunnel "A" of the four Queens tunnel drives from the 63rd Street Tunnel bellmouth. By July 25, 2012, all four Queens tunnel drives were complete. In April 2014, contracts were awarded for the final modifications for the tunnels, as well as for communication systems.
The scope of the project within Queens also included the construction of two bypass tunnels for Amtrak trains within Harold Interlocking. While eastbound Amtrak trains to New England would be able to go through the interlocking without crossing the paths of East Side Access trains, westbound Amtrak trains to Penn Station would use tracks that intersected East Side Access tracks. East Side Access trains to Grand Central came from the east and would diverge to the northwest while Amtrak trains to Penn Station came from the north and would continue west, so the final environmental impact statement called for a bypass for westbound trains. Around $295 million was allocated for the bypass in 2011, and work on this project started in 2013. However, by October 2015, the tunnels were behind schedule because Amtrak and the MTA could not cooperate on track access schedules. These delays ultimately raised construction costs by almost $1 billion as of April 2018, and in a report that month, the MTA attributed the delays to a lack of cooperation on Amtrak's part. The work at Harold Interlocking also included the installation of a microprocessor-based signal system, replacing the old track circuit-based signal system.
In July 2018, workers started realigning tracks to make way for the construction of the Queens tunnel portal, which was the final major contract not underway at the time. The realignment of the three westbound Main Line and Port Washington Branch tracks, as well as the construction of a new eastbound Main Line track to replace an existing track, were completed by the end of summer 2018. The last major construction contract, a $60 million contract for the relocation of tracks in Harold Interlocking and the construction of a tunnel portal structure for Tunnel B/C, was awarded to Skanska in October 2018. Work on the tunnel structure was expected to begin in mid-2019 and be complete by mid-2021. Work on the Midday Storage Yard also progressed, and by 2019, tracks were being laid in the storage yard.
Associated projects.
Arch Street Yard and Shop Facility.
The Arch Street Yard and Shop is located in Long Island City, near the Hunterspoint Avenue station. The yard itself has been in use since at least 1910. The Arch Street Facility includes tracks that were built on the right-of-way of the LIRR's former North Shore Branch. Although the branch formerly extended west to what is now the Gantry Plaza State Park on the East River shoreline, the Arch Street Facility's storage tracks only extend as far as 11th Street, several blocks away from the river.
The LIRR planned a maintenance facility in the yard as part of the East Side Access project. The building was completed in either December 2004 or June 2005. The $80.4 million facility was built using a mix of federal and non-federal funds. The LIRR had built the Arch Street Facility in advance so it could test its then-new M7 cars. When the MTA planned the facility in 2002, it had anticipated that East Side Access would open in 2011 and that the Arch Street Shop could be used to maintain the LIRR fleet. It was thought that the Hillside Facility would not be able to maintain the expanded LIRR fleet on its own. However, after the East Side Access project was repeatedly delayed, the Arch Street Facility was ultimately leased and licensed for other uses.
Just south of the Arch Street Yard, the Montauk Cutoff connected the Main Line to the Montauk Branch until it was decommissioned in 2015. As part of East Side Access, a portion of the cutoff was demolished to make room for the Midday Storage Yard.
New Sunnyside station.
A new LIRR train station in Sunnyside on the west side of Queens Boulevard and Skillman Avenue along the Northeast Corridor (which the LIRR uses to get into Pennsylvania Station) would be built, which would provide one-stop access for area residents to Midtown Manhattan. The station would have two side platforms and one island platform, all of which would be able to accommodate 12-car trains. In its 2015–2019 capital program, the MTA budgeted $76.5 million for the construction of the station. Construction is scheduled to start in January 2021, and is expected to be completed in December 2022.
Capacity improvements.
The East Side Access project, along with several readiness improvement projects, would allow rush-hour passenger capacity on the LIRR to be increased by 45%. Prior to the project's completion, the LIRR could carry 300,000 commuters daily. Once East Side Access is completed, the LIRR could run 24 additional twelve-car trains during rush hours, increasing passenger capacity to 435,000 daily commuters.
Main Line third track.
Related to the MTA's East Side Access project is its long-planned widening of the two-track LIRR Main Line by adding a third track. Completion of Main Line third track construction was assumed during East Side Access project planning and referenced in the original East Side Access environmental impact statement as necessary to support service level increases caused by adding service to and from Grand Central. The MTA has said that it considers the Main Line third track an "essential" project to support East Side Access, and that the Main Line third track will "complement the East Side Access megaproject, which is doubling the LIRR’s capacity into Manhattan."
Main Line third track construction was deferred indefinitely by the MTA in 2008 due to budget constraints. In January 2016, Governor Cuomo and the MTA announced plans to restart construction of the Main Line third track. In December 2017, the LIRR awarded a contract for the project to the consortium 3rd Track Constructors for $1.8 billion. Completion was estimated for 2022, in time for the opening of East Side Access. A groundbreaking ceremony for the third track project was held on September 5, 2018.
Readiness projects.
Five "readiness projects" are also under construction to increase peak-hour capacity across the LIRR system in preparation for expanded peak-hour service after the completion of East Side Access. Together, they are expected to cost $495 million.
The largest of these projects is at Jamaica station. As part of the Jamaica project, the MTA is constructing a new platform for the Atlantic Branch, as well as re-configuring track layouts and installing high-speed switches. After the project is complete, the Atlantic Branch would function as a high-frequency shuttle service to Atlantic Terminal, and all trains from Long Island would proceed to either Long Island City station, Penn Station, or Grand Central via the Main Line. The first phase of the project, which includes the new platform, is planned to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2019 at a cost of $301.6 million.
The MTA is also installing storage tracks at two LIRR stations as part of the East Side Access readiness project. One storage track, a siding under construction near Massapequa station on the Babylon Branch, would be used to store trains that originate or terminate at Massapequa, allowing for increased peak-hour service between Massapequa and Penn Station/Grand Central. , it is planned for completion in April 2019. The MTA is also extending Track 2 on the Port Washington Branch, which ends as a pocket track east of Great Neck station, an additional east, making it long enough to store two trainsets. It is also installing a new bridge at Colonial Road, near the station. The construction of the pocket track is scheduled for completion in December 2018 at a total cost of $45.2 million.
Finally, the MTA is planning to expand two yards as part of the project. The Port Washington Yard, adjacent to Port Washington station on the Port Washington Branch, would be expanded to allow for storage of two additional ten-car trains. , construction is scheduled to begin in late 2020 or early 2021 and would cost $500,000. The MTA would also expand the existing rail yard along the Main Line/Ronkonkoma Branch adjacent to Ronkonkoma station. This expansion would increase the number of total tracks in the yard from 12 to 23. The project is budgeted for $128 million. Construction started in July 2017, with completion projected for March 2020.
New railcars.
The LIRR is also purchasing railcars to provide more passenger capacity as a result of East Side Access's construction. Up to 160 M9 cars might be built specifically to allow for train capacity increases, and are paid for using federal grant money attached to the East Side Access project.
Penn Station Access.
Redirecting LIRR trains from Penn Station to Grand Central Terminal would free up track and platform space at Penn. This new capacity, as well as track connections resulting from the East Side Access project, would allow Metro-North Railroad trains on the New Haven Line to run to Penn Station via Amtrak's Hell Gate Bridge. Four new local Metro-North stations in the Bronx are planned as part of this project, at Co-op City, Morris Park, Parkchester, and Hunts Point. The MTA also proposes a second connection from the Metro-North's Hudson Line to Penn Station using Amtrak's West Side Line in Manhattan. The Penn Station Access project would provide direct rides from Connecticut, Westchester County, the Lower Hudson Valley, and the Bronx to West Midtown; ease reverse-commuting from Manhattan and the Bronx to Westchester County, the Lower Hudson Valley, and Connecticut; and provide transportation service to areas of the Bronx without direct subway service.


Earle Buckingham

Earle Buckingham (1887-1978) was an American mechanical engineer and pioneer in the theory of gears.
Prof. Earle Buckingham is one of the founders of the theory of gearing and gear design and made significant contributions to this area. His monographs gained him international recognition in addition to the great respect he had already earned in English-speaking countries.
Earle Buckingham was born in 1887 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland from 1904 to 1906 and then began to work in industry. In 1919, he directed his research and science interests to the field of gears, initially as a gear consultant for the Niles-Bement-Pond Company (now Pratt & Whitney) and then from 1925 to 1954 as a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After retirement, he continued his research activity as a gear consultant.
Prof. Earle Buckingham’s books (e.g., Analytical Mechanics of Gears, 1963) laid the foundation for the theory of gearing and became references for at least two generations of engineers and researchers. The engineering community recognized his contributions to the design and theory of gears by presenting him these prestigious awards: the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Worcester Reed Warner Medal, 1944; the American Gear Manufacturers Association (AGMA) Edward P. Connel Award, 1950; the American Society of Test Engineers (ASTE) Gold Medal, 1957; the Gold Medal of the British Gear Manufacturers Association, 1962; and the Golden Gear Award of Power Transmission Design magazine in commemoration of the AGMA 50th Anniversary. Also in recognition of his contributions, Buckingham lectures are delivered at the USA Power Transmission and Gearing conferences.
Retrieved from . Development of gear Technology and Theroy of Gearing.
Faydo L. Litvin. Nasa Reference Publication 1406. ARL-TR-1500


Dwight Johns

Brigadier General Dwight Frederick Johns (16 May 1894 – 8 November 1977) was an American soldier and general in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his service in the South West Pacific Area during World War II, where he headed the Advance Base and the Combined Operations Service Command during the Kokoda Track campaign and the Battle of Buna-Gona. He later commanded the Advance Base at Lae and Finschhafen, and the Engineer School at Fort Belvoir. After the war he headed the Pacific Engineer Division, where he was responsible for a number of important flood control and irrigation projects.
Education and early life.
Dwight Frederick Johns was born in Rockford, Illinois on 16 May 1894. He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point as an appointee from Illinois in 1912 and graduated sixth in the class of 1916. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Corps of Engineers in June 1916.
World War I.
Johns initially served at the United States Military Academy as an instructor in the Department of Tactics but in July 1916 he was posted to the 1st Battalion of Mounted Engineers on the Mexican Border. He served with the Pancho Villa Expedition from November 1916 to February 1917, when the 8th Engineers returned to El Paso, Texas. Johns was promoted to captain in May 1917 and major in May 1918. He commanded the 8th Engineers from April to August 1918. Returning to the United States Military Academy in August 1918, he became an instructor in Drawing from August to December 1918, and in Tactics from November to December 1918. From December 1918 to mid-1919 he was an instructor in Mathematics.
Between the wars.
Like most officers in the aftermath of World War I, Johns was reduced in rank to his substantive rank of captain in August 1919, but was promoted to major again in February 1921. In June 1921 he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated in June 1922 with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in civil engineering. He then became Assistant District Engineer of the Detroit River and Harbour District. In 1924 he was posted to the 11th Engineers, based in the Panama Canal Zone. He returned to the United States in 1927 to take up an appointment in the Office of the Chief of Engineers. From 1931 to 1933 he was a student at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. After graduating, he became District Engineer at St Paul, Minnesota. On 1 July 1937, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He attended the U.S. Army War College from 1937 to 1938, then became at instructor at the Command and General Staff College.
World War II.
In 1940 Johns became commanding officer of the 21st Engineers.
The 21st Engineers were assigned the task of investigating techniques for the rapid construction of air bases. As such, Johns was involved in the development of a number of new construction techniques, most notably the use of Marston Mat.
His expertise in airbase construction led to Johns being sent to the South West Pacific as Chief Engineer, American Forces in Java. Departing Washington, D.C. by air on 14 January 1942, Johns arrived in Surabaya nine days later. His first mission was to provide airfield facilities on Java for 2,000 aircraft. Tapping into the vast resources of labour available in one of the world's most densely populated regions, Johns set about readying the required airfields. However, Java was captured by the Japanese before the aircraft arrived.
Johns reached Australia on 28 February 1942 and became Chief Engineer, United States Army Forces in Australia (USAFIA), with the rank of brigadier general. As such, Johns represented the US Army on the Allied Works Council, the body controlling and coordinating all construction activities in Australia. With the arrival in Australia of General Douglas MacArthur, Brigadier General Hugh John Casey, who had accompanied MacArthur from the Philippines, became Chief Engineer at General Headquarters (GHQ), South West Pacific Area (SWPA). Johns, who was in an earlier class at West Point than Casey, remained Chief of Engineers, USAFIA until 25 May 1942, when he became Chief of Staff of US Army Services of Supply (USASOS).
When the Kokoda Track campaign became mired in logistical difficulties, MacArthur and General Sir Thomas Blamey agreed to establish a Combined Operations Service Command (COSC) under New Guinea Force to co-ordinate logistical activities in Papua-New Guinea. Johns was designated commander of both COSC and the Advance Base, New Guinea on 8 October 1942. He was given an Australian deputy, Brigadier Victor Secombe, a Royal Australian Engineers officer. All Australian and American logistical units were placed under COSC but Johns chose to exercise command of the Australian units through Secombe. They built an organization that "was a radical departure from that which the Australian Army considered normal administrative procedure, but was adequately to meet the novel demands of a campaign in a country lacking roads and railways, in which all transport had to be by sea or air, and in which often the administrative or base areas coincided with the operational areas." Johns later wrote that:
Johns impressed Australian officers with his sensitive handling of inter-Allied issues, his co-operative nature, and his ability to get the job done. Lieutenant General Edmund Herring, who came to regard Johns as a close friend, later described Johns and Secombe as "born co-operators." One of Johns' most important decisions involved the construction of a new deep-water berth for Liberty ships at Tatana Island. This involved building a causeway out to the island. The project would double the capacity of the port of Port Moresby, but to build it Johns had to divert the African-American 96th Engineers from work on the airfields around Port Moresby, raising fears from airmen like Brigadier General Ennis Whitehead that the airfields would not be ready for all-weather operations by the time that the rainy season arrived. Rains in late October did indeed close three airfields but the causeway opened on 30 October and the wharf accepted its first ship on 3 November.
Johns relinquished his roles in Papua and resumed his former post at USASOS in March 1943, being replaced by Brigadier General Hanford MacNider. In turn, he replaced MacNider as GHQ Coordinator, Milne Bay in October 1943. As such, he was responsible for all logistical activities at what was now the major US base in Papua-New Guinea. On 15 December 1943, he became Coordinator, Finschhafen. Finschhafen was destined to become the new hub of US activity in Papua-New Guinea; but an enormous amount of work was required to get the base ready for action. For his service in New Guinea, Johns was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.
In 1944, Johns became commandant of the Engineer School at Fort Belvoir. The wartime Engineer School was responsible for the training of officers. Some were engineers in civilian life who were trained as officers; other were officers transferred from other arms who were given training in engineering subjects. The Officer Candidate School (OCS) prepared enlisted men for commissioning as officers. There had been strong criticism of the content of training courses from SWPA, where it was the norm for machinery to be operated around the clock and for engineer officers to supervise all manner of construction tasks. The commanders there felt that the training courses taught by the Engineer School were concentrating too much on leadership in combat, and not enough on technical matters, such the operation and maintenance of construction equipment. Johns reformed the curriculum, but by this time it was too late for the changes to have much effect in the overseas theaters of operations. For his work at Fort Belvoir, Johns was awarded the Legion of Merit.
Later life.
Johns was Assistant Chief of Engineers for Military Operations from June 1945 to March 1947. He reverted to his permanent rank of colonel in March 1946. In June 1947 Johns became commander of the Pacific Engineer Division, based in San Francisco, responsible for the southern half of the Pacific coast. As such he was involved with a number of important construction projects, including the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel, the Folsom Dam, the Isabella Dam, the Pine Flat Lake, and the Merced River projects. Johns retired from the army as a brigadier general on 31 December 1949. In retirement, Johns was awarded the Gold Medal from the Society of American Military Engineers in 1950, and served as its president in 1953. Johns maintained the wartime friendships he had made, and with his wife Laura he entertained Australian general Sir Edmund Herring in their home in Piedmont, California in 1967. Johns died on 8 November 1977.


East Stroudsburg (NJT station)


PT Mi-U mine

The PT Mi-U is a circular Czech anti-tank mine with a Misznay Schardin effect warhead. It can be used with a conventional pressure fuze or a tilt rod fuze.
The mine can be used with an electronic fuze with an adjustable electronic arming delay, self neutralization period, and self-destruct period.


Raywood railway station

Raywood railway station is a proposed railway station in the town of Raywood, Victoria, Australia. A station at Raywood was first opened in 1882 on what is now the Piangil line, but closed to passenger traffic on 4 October 1981 as part of the "New Deal" timetable for country passengers.
A new station located north of the Inglewood Street level crossing is scheduled to open in 2022 as part of the Regional Rail Revival project.
External links.
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Anzac railway station

Anzac railway station (originally known by the working title of Domain) is a railway station currently being built as part of the Melbourne Metro Rail Project. The station is named for the nearby Shrine of Remembrance and in honour of the ANZAC spirit of service and sacrifice. It is being built using the cut-and-cover method. Construction on the station commenced in 2018. The station will open as part of the wider Metro Tunnel project in 2025.
Location.
Anzac Station will be built below St Kilda Road in the suburb of South Yarra, and is planned to feature four entrances.
Anzac Precinct.
The station will also feature the first platform-to-platform connection between trains and trams in Melbourne, as half of all passengers are expected to interchange between the two modes of transport.
During the construction period the Domain Road tram line, St Kilda tram line and Domain Interchange tram stop will close and experience short term closures.


David Bates Douglass

David Bates Douglass (March 21, 1790 – October 21, 1849) was a civil and military engineer, who worked on a broad set of projects throughout his career. For fifteen years he was a professor at the United States Military Academy, and after his resignation from the army he worked as a consulting engineer while holding academic appointments at various colleges and universities. He was the third president of Kenyon College (1841-1845), and when he died in 1849 he was the chair of the Mathematics Department at Hobart College.
Early life and War of 1812.
Douglass was born to Nathaniel and Sarah Douglass in Pompton Township, New Jersey, an iron mining region. His mother's brother was the notable civil engineer, David Stanhope Bates.
Although his early education was ordinary, being primarily taught by his mother, he developed a passion for technology under the influence of observation of the local industry. He graduated from Yale College in 1813. Shortly after graduation, he entered service in the War of 1812 and received a commission as Second Lieutenant in command of a corps of miners and sappers. He distinguished himself in the war, participating in the Battle of Lundy's Lane, and receiving a citation and field promotion to First Lieutenant for gallantry at the Siege of Fort Erie.
West Point years.
From 1815 until 1831, Douglass was a professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. During this time, he also worked on a variety of other government-sponsored as well as private projects. He consulted on the western section of the Erie Canal, at the request of Governor DeWitt Clinton.
In 1815 he married Ann Ellicott, the daughter of Andrew Ellicott, Professor of Mathematics at the academy.
Lewis Cass expedition of 1820.
In 1820, he was a member of the Lewis Cass expedition to explore the south shore of Lake Superior. His orders read:
You are assigned to accompany a party to be employed in exploring the Southern Coasts and Shores of Lake Superior in the course of the ensuing summer under the direction of Governor Cass of Michigan Territory... You will join him at Detroit by the first of May at the farthest and when your services will be no longer required by him you will return to West Point, N.Y. and report by letter thence to this Department.
Other members of the expedition included Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Charles C. Trowbridge and James Duane Doty. By most accounts, the expedition successfully completed and even exceeded its mission, particularly in regard to unexpected ethnological observations. Cass had also previously stated that an objective was to ascertain the feasibility of relocating the Iroquois Confederacy from New York, and many Oneida, Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians were removed from New York to Wisconsin (then Michigan Territory) in the succeeding years.
Douglass was charged by Cass to lead the project to write, under joint authorship, the official account of the expedition. However, the death of his father-in-law and obligations to his new position as Chair of the Department of Mathematics (including teaching himself French in order to read the most current texts available on calculus) led to personal delays, and in what was an acrimonious split from his colleague, Schoolcraft scooped him and published his own account.
Post-military career.
Morris Canal.
In 1831, Douglass submitted his resignation to the academy and it was accepted, as his outside projects were becoming more of a distraction. First and foremost was as a consulting engineer for the Morris Canal, in particular as the designer of the Montville inclined plane. As the Newark "Eagle" reported, the 1830 test of the device was a major success:
The machinery was set in motion under the direction of Major Douglass, the enterprising Engineer. The boat, with two hundred persons on board, rose majestically out of the water; in one minute it was upon the summit, which it passed apparently with all the ease that a ship would cross a wave of the sea. As the forward wheels of the car commenced their descent, the boat seemed gently to bow to the spectators and the town below, then glided quickly down the wooden way. In six minutes and thirty seconds it descended from the summit and re-entered the canal, thus passing a plane one thousand and forty feet long, with a descent of seventy feet, in six and one half minutes.
These inclined planes became an internationally renowned tourist attraction.
The Elbląg Canal, one of Seven Wonders of Poland, used the Morris Canal's technology as inspiration for its inclined planes; for that reason, the inclined planes on that canal strongly resemble those on the Morris canal.
Green-Wood Cemetery.
One of the Douglass's most significant lasting legacies is Green-Wood Cemetery in New York. It established a style of peaceful, natural setting known as a rural cemetery that was copied several times by Douglass himself as well as his admirers.
President of Kenyon College.
Douglass was the third president of Kenyon College, serving from 1841 to 1845. He wrote two monographs concerning the reasons for his departure.
Other post-military projects.
Other noteworthy projects that Douglass led or was a major contributor in included surveying the Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad route, the design of a major water delivery system for New York City, and the design of two garden cemeteries based on his design of Green-Wood: Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York (1845–1846), and Mount Hermon Cemetery (1848), located on the outskirts of Quebec City. Douglass was also originally awarded the design of the High Bridge of the Croton Aqueduct system, but was later fired.
Final years.
In October 1848, Douglass was appointed Professor of Mathematics at Hobart College, then known as Geneva College. In October 1849, he died of a stroke.
References.
Notes
Bibliography


Nikolaus Kittel

Nikolai Ferdinandovich Kittel (1805/6 - 18 April 1868) was a Russian violin and bow maker who is often still mistakenly considered as of German origin, and was known as the "Russian Tourte".
According to the latest findings, his full name was Nikolai Ferdinandovich Kittel and that he was of Austrian origin as stated in his marriage certificate. Kittel always signed letters and invoices with the name Nikolai Kittel. In all German and French documents, he was named Nikolai, and not Nikolaus.
Background.
Kittel was an enigmatic figure (who worked in St. Petersburg 1825-1868). He is known to have employed some of the leading makers, (as did his great Parisian contemporary Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume), including Russian, Vladimir Ivanoff, and German makers such as Heinrich Knopf (and Ludwig Bausch ?), to make his bows.
In Czarist Russia, Kittel served as violinmaker to the court, making superb violins which were considered the best made in Russia, and produced bows of unsurpassed quality, often using beautiful highly flamed wood.
The design of Kittel bows is also derived from an advanced Tourte model although this interpretation of Tourte is distinctly different from the French interpretations.
His bows are rare and highly prized by soloists. Kittel bows are nearly always quite light and flexible. Despite their flexibility, Kittel bows have extremely quick playing characteristics alongside a unique beauty of tone.
Kittel died on April 18, 1868 at the age of 63. His obituary stated: 'Thus, in the realm of the bow, the curtain was drawn on a career of memorable achievement'.
"Henri Vieuxtemps preferred Kittel bows even to those of F.X. Tourte. Since then, Kittel's bows have been used by the greatest soloists, among them Henryk Wieniawski, Jascha Heifetz, Mischa Elman, Toscha Seidel, Leopold Auer, Isaac Stern, Paul Kochanski, Aaron Rosand, Erica Morini, Efrem Zimbalist, Leonid Kogan, Yehudi Menuhin, and Vadim Repin. Kittel bows are extremely rare.
In 1999, a gold and tortoiseshell-mounted violin bow made in St Petersburg in the mid 19th century by Kittel and from the Yehudi Menuhin Collection, fetched £51,000 (Sotheby's auction, London : £58,650 / US$94,837 with buyers premium) more than three times the high pre-sale estimate (est: £10,000-15,000)." - Filimonov Fine Violins - 2007
References.
^ Strad magazine - "Nikolaus Ferder Kittel: The Russian Tourte" by Harvey and Georgeanna Whistler
Jump up ^ The Bows of Nikolai Kittel- Klaus Grünke, Josef P. Gabriel, Yung Chin in co-operation with Darling Publications Andy Lim Cologne, 2011
Jump up ^ Yung Chin fine bows of the violin family
Jump up ^ Strad - 'Favorite Bow' - article by Joseph Gold (recollection of Jasha Heifetz and his Kittel bow)
Jump up ^ Moscow, Russian Federation archives
Jump up ^ Filimonov Fine Violins
Jump up ^ Moscow, Russian Federation archives
Jump up ^ An Interview with Herbert Axelrod", VSA Proceedings, Vol. IV, No. 1, Winter, 1977/78, 1977.
Jump up ^ The Bows of Nikolai Kittel- Klaus Grünke, Josef P. Gabriel, Yung Chin and Andy Lim in co-operation with Darling Publications Andy Lim Cologne, 2011
Jump up ^ Nikolai Kittel- Violoncello, St. Petersburg, 1833, ed. Andy Lim, Darling Publications Andy Lim Cologne, 2011


Heron Road Workers Memorial Bridge

The Heron Road Workers Memorial Bridge (formerly the Heron Road Bridge) is a bridge in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It connects Baseline Road to Heron Road and allows east-west traffic to cross both the Rideau River and the Rideau Canal just south of Carleton University. The current bridge was finished in 1967, one year after a bridge collapse killed nine workers and injured over sixty others in the worst construction accident in both Ottawa and Ontario history. It was renamed in 2016 to commemorate the victims of that accident.
Planning and early construction.
Ottawa Mayor Charlotte Whitton initially opposed the plans of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker to build the bridge to ease east-west traffic in the city. In 1961, Diefenbaker's government threatened to reduce the amount of federal grants to Ottawa by the cost of the bridge if the city did not agree to build it. After further negotiations, an agreement on building the bridge was signed by the municipal, provincial, and federal governments in 1964.
The original construction plan included two three-lane, bridges, one eastbound and one westbound, and was budgeted at two and a half million dollars. The bridge was slightly north of Hog's Back Falls and was to connect Baseline Road and Heron Road over the Rideau River and the Rideau Canal for both motorists and pedestrians.
The City of Ottawa awarded the contract to build the footings of the concrete piers supporting the bridge to Beaver Construction in February 1965. This work was completed by June 1965. The final plan for the project still had two three-lane bridges, but the prestressed concrete bridges would only be 877.5 feet long. In August 1965, the city awarded the bridge construction contract to O.J. Gaffney Ltd and hired M.M. Dillon & Company Ltd as consulting engineers for designing and supervising the project.
Each bridge had four spans, for which the concrete was poured in two layers. Work started in fall 1965 on the western spans, which were was mostly finished by August 1966. Meanwhile wooden falsework was used to support the less complete eastern spans still being built. The first concrete layer for the third of both bridges' four spans had been poured back in July 1966 without issue.
August 10, 1966 collapse.
On August 10, 1966, a shift of about sixty to seventy workers were almost finished pouring of concrete on the eastern side of the partially completed third span of the southern bridge when it collapsed at 3:27 p.m. According to an eyewitness account from a M.M. Dillon manager, the crew had been pouring concrete eastwards from the centre of the span when the western end of the span was flipped upwards and onto the rest of the bridge, bringing it down.
The wooden falsework on the bridge failed and workers on the bridge fell between fifteen and twenty metres to the ground, while rebars, cement, wood, concrete, and other building materials fell on them. The collapse created a loud impact noise and a cloud of dust. It also triggered the nearby Dominion Observatory's seismometer, which prompted officials to issue a statement that the collapse had not been caused by an earthquake. Many workers panicked and ran or swam away from the site right after the collapse, while others ran to the site to help the victims. People picnicking in nearby Vincent Massey Park arrived on the scene to help shortly before emergency services did. Ottawa mayor Don Reid also came to the scene and joined in the rescue efforts with a pair of bolt cutters.
Most of the injured were taken to the Civic Hospital, which was in the middle of switching from day to night shifts, allowing many medical staff to stay and deal with the influx of patients or to travel to the site to provide aid such as administering morphine to trapped workers. The high number of patients forced the hospital to cancel all elective procedures and relocate patients in wings adjacent to the emergency room so the injured construction workers could be kept together. Because many of the injured were recently arrived Europeans who were not fluent in English, were not carrying their identification at the time of the accident, and were covered in concrete, many blood transfusions were done without having a patient name, contrary to standard operating procedure.
Over one third of the 183 workers were treated at the Civic Hospital, while the Ottawa General Hospital and the National Defence Medical Centre received just two patients each. The surgeon of the General Hospital criticized the focus on sending patients to the overwhelmed, but nearby Civic Hospital, when his hospital only received their first patient at 4:30 p.m. despite having its staff on standby in anticipation of a patient influx.
Rescue efforts ended at 3:30 a.m. when it became too dark to continue using the required machinery. Nine men died as a result of the collapse: seven were killed on site, one died at the Civic Hospital, and another died from his injuries in September. Over sixty workers were injured, mostly from the falling wet cement that had just been poured on the bridge when it collapsed. Among the dead were Leonard Baird, the project's resident engineer, and Clarence Beattie, the site foreman; the other seven workers who died were Jean Paul Guerin, Omer Lamadeleine, Edmund Newton, Lucien Regimbald, Dominic Romano, Raymond Tremblay, and Joao Viegas. The accident remains the deadliest construction accident in both Ottawa and Ontario history.
Inquest and aftermath.
A inquest into the collapse was completed in November 1966 after a week of testimony from over seventy witnesses. The total cost for the inquest was $100,000. It was led by Ontario coroner H.B. Cotnam, who retained the engineering firm H.G. Acres Ltd to help conduct the investigation. Officially, the inquest was into the causes of death for site foreman Clarence Beattie.
The inquest blamed the lack of proper diagonal bracing on the wooden falsework supporting the concrete. University of Toronto engineering department head Carson Morrison gave expert evidence using wooden models to show flaws in the unbraced falsework's design. The inquest found that the weight of even one layer of concrete being placed to form the bridge deck exceeded the weight that the supports could hold, and that a second collapse was imminent as supports near the collapsed area showed signs of buckling. Secondary contributing factors included the use of green lumber, which was weaker than mature wood, differences between how the footings settled, and temporary overload of some of the posts.
The inquest heard testimony that a third design for the falsework, which did not include diagonal bracing, was meant by the consulting engineers to supplement the previous design, which did have the bracing. However it was interpreted by the construction firm as being a complete and final design. There was conflicting evidence about who was responsible for the change to remove the bracing from the design, with the Gaffney construction firm blaming M.M. Dillon, their engineering consultants, who denied they were responsible. Furthermore, municipal and provincial safety inspectors noticed the lack of diagonal bracing but were reassured by the engineering student leading the inspection tour that it had been approved by qualified engineers. Because the inspectors were not trained engineers and had been told not to question qualified engineers, the lack of bracing was not reported.
Oliver Gaffney, the owner and namesake of the construction firm building the bridge, accepted only partial responsibility for the falsework's design and construction, arguing that the design and method of construction had been approved by M.M Dillon, their design consulting engineering firm. John Bromley, the project engineer at Dillon in charge of approving the falsework design, testified that the fault for not recognizing the fatal lack of diagonal bracing was his alone and said that "My mind must have been a bit confused at the time."
The inquest found that O.J. Gaffney Ltd. of Stratford, Ontario, and M.M Dillon Co. were both responsible for the bridge collapse. O.J. Gaffney Ltd. was found guilty on two charges and fined $5,000, the maximum allowed penalty under the existing "Construction Safety Act". As a result of the findings, the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario suspended two of its members, including Bromley, for one year and reprimanded a third.
The inquest jury also made a series of recommendations to prevent future accidents of this type. These included clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of construction firms and engineering consultants, stricter training and reporting requirements for inspectors, and requirements that falsework designs be stamped by a qualified engineer and use appropriate lumber. It also recommended creating a mandatory provincial building code for falsework and bridge construction. The recommendations of the inquest prompted a rewrite of the "Construction Safety Act" to increase workplace safety standards.
Widows of those killed in the accident received a lump sum payout of $300 to cover the cost of a funeral, an allowance of $75 per month, and $40-$50 per month for each child still in school.
The bridge was rebuilt and opened to the public on June 29, 1967.
Later history.
In November 1987, a plaque honouring the nine workers killed was placed just west of the bridge on Heron Road. In the same year, the Canadian Labour Congress built a monument in nearby Vincent Massey Park to Canadians killed and injured at work.
From February 2011 to October 2012, Heron Road Bridge was closed because of a $15 million rehabilitation project — part of the city's Ottawa on the Move infrastructure plan — that improved its bearings, expansion joints, and pavement, among other changes.
In July 2016, after a campaign by the Ottawa and District Labour Council, the Ottawa City Council voted to rename the bridge the Heron Road Workers Memorial Bridge to honour the victims of the collapse. A rededication ceremony was held at the aforementioned plaque on August 10, 2016, the fiftieth anniversary of the collapse, and included three workers who survived the collapse, Mayor Jim Watson, the president of the Ottawa and District Labour Council, as well as the relatives of the victims. A new plaque was unveiled at the event.


SS Lenin

The SS Lenin was a Soviet passenger ship, owned by Black Sea State Shipping Co, which sank in the Black Sea on 27 July 1941 with great loss of life.
History.
Before the War, "SS Lenin" served as a passenger ship between the several Russian Black Sea Ports.
On 24 July 1941, she departed from Mariupol via Sevastopol to Yalta. Only 482 passengers had tickets, but many more passengers were allowed onto the ship. Also some 1200 soldiers of the Red Army reserves boarded the ship. She left Sevastopol for Yalta on 27 July, together with passenger ships "Voroshilov", "Gruzia" and Navy Boat SKA-026. At 23:33 an explosion of unknown nature struck to ship and she sank within 10 minutes.
Only 43 crew and about 600 passengers were rescued. At least 49 crew and 900 passengers were lost, but the death toll could have been much larger. Estimates vary between 2,500 and 4,600 casualties. The reason of the sinking was probably a navigation mistake by Navy pilot lieutenant I.I.Svistun, who changed the route and sent the ship into a Soviet minefield. He was arrested and shot on 24 August 1941. Reports of an torpedo attack by a Romanian submarine were not confirmed by the Romanian Navy.


Deux-Montagnes station

Deux-Montagnes is a future terminus station of the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) in Deux-Montagnes, Quebec, Canada. REM service at the station is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2024. The station will serve as the terminus of the Deux-Montagnes branch of the REM.
Until the end of 2020, Deux-Montagnes was a commuter rail station operated by Exo and was the northern terminus of the Deux-Montagnes line.
Origin of name.
Deux-Montagnes takes its name from Deux-Montagnes, the municipality where it is located, although this station took the name of the original Gare Deux-Montagnes, now Grand-Moulin station. The building serves as municipal offices, as well as a passenger waiting area for the connecting routes. Outside of the building, is the former CN 6710, a GE boxcab electric-powered locomotive that brought trains through the Mount Royal Tunnel until 1995.
Location.
The station is located at 400, boul. Deux-Montagnes, near Autoroute 640 (exit 8). The station is also served by pedestrian walkways and bicycle routes in Deux-Montagnes.


Robert Inglis (railway engineer)

Sir Robert John Mathieson Inglis CIE MICE TD DL FRSE (1881–1962) was a Scots-born railway engineer noted for his work in Britain and India and his reorganisation of the railways in post-war Germany.
Life.
He was born at Tantah House in south Peebles on 5 May 1881, the son of James C. Inglis of Slafarquhar (Stirling) and Tantah (Peebles). He was educated locally at Bonnington Park Academy then went to Edinburgh University to study Mathematics and Engineering.
In 1900 he joined the North British Railway as a junior design engineer. He quickly rose to be Resident Engineer for the Lothian area and was involved in the widening works between Edinburgh and Portobello (including a reconfiguration of the tunnels going through Calton Hill under the Royal High School. In 1909 he became Chief Assistant for New Works for all of the North British Railway, aged only 28. In 1911 he received yet another boost to his blooming career, being appointed an Engineer to the Ministry of Transport for Great Britain.
In 1912 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir Thomas Hudson Beare, Willam Archer Porter Tait, Benjamin Hall Blyth, Charles Alexander Stevenson and William Allan Carter.
In 1919 he became Deputy Chief Engineer of Railways and in 1921 Chief Engineer of Railways. During this period he also acted as District engineer for the Glasgow area. In 1929 he went to work for London and North Eastern Railway as Assistant Engineer. In 1937 he became Engineer in charge of the Southern Area, succeeding fellow Scot, Charles John Brown. In 1943 he became Divisional General Manager of the Scottish Area for LNER – more of an administrative role. He left this to take on a more challenging role in India doing a special report to the Indian Government on necessary improvements needed to the largely 19th century system. For this work he was created a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE).
His most curious role (arguably) was in post-war Germany from 1945. Here he advised the authorities within the British Section on the degree to which the lines and systems could be stripped down and still remain operational. This involved the removal of thousands of miles of "duplicate tracks" reducing many lines to a one-way system, but rarely wholly removing any route. In this task it can perhaps be seen as a precursor to the Beeching cuts in Britain. Surplus steel was sold off as "reparition". Inglis began as Chief of Transport for the British Sector and rose to Chief of Transport for both the British and American Sectors. On a more positive note, this also included major improvements to tram systems within multiple West German cities. He was knighted by King George VI in 1947 for his works.
In 1948 he went to South Africa to advise upon and establish the new Durban railway station.
In 1949 he returned to Scotland as Chairman of the Glasgow and District Transport Committee with the primary purpose of electrifying the Glasgow and Clyde Valley railway system, publishing what became known in the railway industry as the Inglis Report in 1951.
In 1954/5 he was Chairman of the investigating committee on Rhodesian Railways again looking at efficiency.
He retired to Helensburgh in 1957 aged 76, but took on the titular role of Deputy Lieutenant for Dunbartonshire.
He died in Helensburgh on 23 June 1962.
Family.
In 1923 he married Barbara Selkirk Sommerville, later becoming Lady Inglis. They had one son and one daughter.


Lewis Kingman

Lewis Kingman (February 26, 1845 – January 22, 1912) was a civil engineer, who surveyed and built several thousands of miles of railroad lines.
Biography.
Lewis Kingman was born in North Bridgewater, Massachusetts (today known as Brockton, Massachusetts) on February 26, 1845 to Isaac Kingman and Sibil Ames. He studied engineering with Shedd & Edison, a civil engineering company in Boston, Massachusetts. Initially, he worked in the oil fields of Pennsylvania, but later turned his sights towards the railroads.
In 1868 he began to work at the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad and was responsible for building lines in Missouri, Kansas, Colorado and Mexico. In 1880 he surveyed and built the line from Flagstaff to Needles through what became Kingman, Arizona. Kingman, Arizona and was named after him, as he had brought transportation and subsequently settlement to isolated areas.
He died suddenly in Mexico City, Mexico on January 22, 1912, leaving a wife, four sons, and a daughter to mourn him.


Airport Business Park railway station

Airport Business Park railway station is a proposed station on the Western Sydney Airport line that will serve Badgerys Creek. It is scheduled to open in 2026.
References.
[[Category:Sydney Metro stations]]
[[Category:Railway stations scheduled to open in 2026]]


Mette Magrete Tvistman

Mette Magrete Tvistman (1741, Frørup – 9 February 1827, Snejbjerg) was a Danish artist (clockmaker). She is known in Danish history as the first female clockmaker in her country.
Mette Magrete Tvistman was the daughter of the blacksmith and clockmaker Christen Jensen (1703–1781) and Maren Nielsdatter (1700–1791). She married the clockmaker Johan Ahlert Tvistman (1721–1769) in 1760, and had two children. In 1771, she married the farmer Christen Jensen, and had a daughter, but quickly divorced him. She was engaged to a son of the influential cleric Ude Haahr of Holstebro in 1788, but broke the engagement, which was regarded a scandal.
After the death of her first spouse, she became active as a clockmaker with a workshop in the farm she inherited from her spouse. In 1783, she left her workshop to her son. From 1783 to 1787, she was active as a clockmaker with her own workshop in Vejle, in 1787–98 in Ølgod, and in 1798–1818 in Holstebro.
During her stay at Holstebro, however, she seem to have been active more as the manager of the community poorhouse, which was housed at her farm, though she was officially listed as a clockmaker. In 1818, she retired to the home of her daughter. She died in poverty.
Tvistman is referred to as the first female clockmaker in Denmark. Her most productive period was that in Ølgod, when she owned one of the largest estates in the city, which she had made her workshop. At least 35 of her constructed clocks are preserved, notably a grandmother clock.


Knoll Trail station

The Knoll Trail station is a future train station along the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Silver Line. The station will be located at 15450 Knoll Trail Drive in Dallas, Texas. The station will serve the Dallas North Tollway corridor and Prestonwood Town Center.


T-93 mine

The T-93 is an Egyptian scatterable anti-tank mine similar in appearance to the German AT-2 scatterable mine. It can be dispensed from launchers deployed on the ground or mounted on vehicles which can hold as many as 600 mines. The mine is cylindrical with twelve spring-loaded legs folded up against the sides of its body during storage. After the mine is dispensed and strikes the ground, the legs spring open, pointing the mine upright.
The mine is triggered by a magnetic fuze when an appropriate target is detected, detonating the Misznay Schardin effect warhead, which produces a self-forging fragment capable of penetrating up to 80 millimeters of armor.


Hans Seyffer

Hans Seyffer, also known as "Hans Seyfer" or "Hans of Heilbronn" (c.1460–1509), was a stone sculptor and wood carver of the late Gothic style.
Biography.
Seyffer was born in Sinsheim. Little else is known about his life. He lived and worked at a dramatic turn of an era (from late Gothic to Renaissance) together with other masters (e.g. Tilman Riemenschneider, Veit Stoss and Hans Brueggemann). He created many well-known works of art in Heilbronn and Stuttgart (both in Germany). He died in Heilbronn.


Eastridge Transit Center

The Eastridge Transit Center is a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) bus terminal located at the Eastridge Mall in the Evergreen District of San Jose, California. The station is located alongside Capitol Expressway near Tully Road.
Bus routes.
The following bus routes operate from Eastridge:
Light rail extension.
The VTA light rail Orange Line is planned to be extended to Eastridge from its current terminus at the Alum Rock Transit Center. This new extension would offer rail connection to the Milpitas Transit Center and the Mountain View Transit Center, providing access to Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Caltrain. Construction is slated to begin in Fall 2021 and projected to be complete in Summer 2026.


Sydney Donkin

Sydney Bryan Donkin (24 June 1871 – 12 November 1952) was a British civil engineer. His parents were Bryan Donkin Junior and Georgina Dillon. Donkin was educated at University College, London before beginning work for Sulzer Brothers, mechanical engineers, later the Sulzer company. Whilst based at this company's headquarters in Switzerland he became interested in Alpine climbing and spent much of his spare time climbing the nearby peaks. He was a founding member of the Climbers' Club and served on their committee in 1908 and later as vice-president and president.
He later became an assistant to Alexander Kennedy, the electrical engineer, and worked on several large hydro-electric dams including the first Lower Aswan Dam and the Owen Falls Dam. He also sat on the general board of the National Physical Laboratory, as chairman of the Association of Consulting Engineers, president of the Association of Supervisory Electrical Engineers, president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and president of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers. He was a proponent of social housing and built the first houses for the ICE Benevolent fund at Haywards Heath.
Education and apprenticeship.
Donkin was the great-grandson of Bryan Donkin, the distinguished mechanical engineer and industrialist and the grandson of John Donkin. He was educated at University College, London, from which he graduated with a degree in engineering. He served an apprenticeship first with the family firm of Bryan Donkin and Company, of Bermondsey, of which his father, Bryan Donkin Jr., was then chairman. This was where his father had carried out classic scientific boiler trials with Sir Alexander Kennedy, in 1887–88. He completed his apprenticeship (1889–1893) by spending a year in Switzerland about 9 months of which was with Sulzer company, a firm of mechanical engineers based at Winterthur in Switzerland. On returning to England in 1893 he rejoined Bryan Donkin & Company as a draughtsman, later becoming assistant to the manager.
Mountain climbing.
Donkin first began climbing when working in Switzerland with Sulzer Brothers. A cousin, William Frederick Donkin, had been a famed climber and secretary of the Alpine Club who died on a climb in the Caucasus in 1888. He soon became an enthusiast and climbed many of the Alpine peaks including Matterhorn, Monte Rosa, Zinalrothorn, Dent Blanche and the Dom as well as several mountains of North Wales. He made many of his ascents without a local guide and took most of his summer holidays in the Alps. He became a founding member of the Climbers' Club in 1898 and served on their committee in 1908–11, 1929–36 and 1939–43. He was elected vice-president for 1926-9 and president 1936-9.
Electrical engineer.
In 1897 he left the family firm to become an Assistant Engineer at Kennedy and Jenkin, working with Alexander Kennedy, the famed electrical engineer and another keen climber, and worked within his consultancy. He was made a partner in the business in 1908 and became the senior partner in 1934 on the retirement of John MacFarlane Kennedy, son of the founder. Donkin worked heavily in hydro-electric power and was involved in several large scale projects. Amongst these were the Aswan Low Dam on the Nile in Egypt which was built between 1899 and 1902 and the Owen Falls Dam on the White Nile in Uganda which was started in 1947 and finished two years after his death.
Donkin had a seat on the general board of the National Physical Laboratory from 1922 to 1927. He was one of the original consultants for the planning and construction of the National Grid, and was responsible for the design and construction of approximately half of the hydro-electric stations and distribution systems commissioned by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board. Because of his great interest in mountain climbing, in 1928 he urged his assistants working on the design of the grid system that the pylons should be simple in design and positioned so as to do the least environmental damage. He was chairman of the Association of Consulting Engineers for two terms, first in 1927–28, and again in 1943–44. He acted as an adviser to the government on a proposed Severn barrage scheme, and was personally responsible for the crucial technical appendices of the report (HMSO 1945). Donkin also served as President of the Association of Supervisory Electrical Engineers from 1925 until 1931 and as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers for 1937 to 1938. He assisted the Ministry of Labour in their preparations for the Second World War by volunteering his services as Chairman of the engineering section of the National Register of Scientists, Technical Experts and Professional Men which was established to allow the government to better use the skills of these men for the war effort. In the 1930s he became interested in uses for the heated water generated by power stations and this was the subject of his Presidential Address to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1937. After the war he devised a way of using it to heat homes and businesses which was put into use on a housing estate in Pimlico. He erected a working model of it in his home in Surrey. He was made a Fellow of University College, London in 1946. In 1949 he was elected as President of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers, of which he had become a member in 1931.
Personal life.
He was married to Phoebe Smiles in 1902, whilst working in England for Alexander Kennedy. He was a keen proponent of the provision of social housing and in this interest founded the Institution of Civil Engineers Benevolent Fund housing scheme in July 1937 with the construction of houses at Haywards Heath for members and their families in need. Donkin died at Albury, Surrey on 12 November 1952 at the age of 81. His wife had predeceased him by eight months.
References.


John Calver

John Calver (ca. 1695 – 12 April 1751) was an English clockmaker based in Woodbridge, Suffolk.
History.
He was born around 1695, the son of John Calver of Wittlesham. He married Mary Trott on 3 October 1738 in St John the Baptist’s Church, Wantisden, Suffolk.
On 28 May 1718, he was apprenticed to Thomas Moore (or Moor), clockmaker, in Ipswich. He set up business in Woodbridge in Suffolk making longcase and lantern clocks, and is regarded as one of the best makers in Suffolk at this period.
In the Ipswich Journal on 24 November 1739 he is referred to as a Watch-maker.
On 5 September 1741, he took on William Mayhew as an apprentice. On the death of John Calver in 1751 his business was taken over by William Mayhew.