Plans to replace the Midtown Bus Terminal in Manhattan are moving ahead as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Board of Commissioners authorized the first two contracts July 25, pending a federal environmental review. The $271-million Dyer Avenue deck-overs will allow bus service to continue during construction of the new $10-billion west side terminal.
The Port Authority selected MLJ Contracting, Great Neck, N.Y., for construction of the deck-overs and AECOM Tishman to provide construction management of this segment of the project. MLJ declined to comment on the work and AECOM Tishman did not immediately respond to inquiries.
The deck-overs are planned to be built over below-grade sections of Dyer Avenue and the Lincoln Tunnel Expressway between West 37th Street and Eighth Avenue and West 38th and 39th Streets. They would be used to stage buses during construction of the new terminal, and then be turned into 3.5 acres of public green space after construction is complete.
An environmental review by the Federal Transit Administration and New York City land use review are still pending, but Port Authority officials say they anticipate starting construction later this year or early next year.
In a statement, Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole called the board’s vote authorizing the contracts “an emphatic step forward to replace an aging eyesore with a new state-of-the-art transportation facility fit for our region.”
The project is needed to replace the aging facility with what O’Toole called “a beautiful, efficient new bus terminal” featuring a multi-story main entrance atrium. The new terminal would also add capacity to meet projected commuter growth by 2050 and allow inter-city buses that currently use the streets around the terminal to move operations inside. The terminal is already the largest in the country and busiest in the world, according to the Port Authority, with more than 7,200 buses and 200,000 passengers passing through on an average weekday.
Port Authority plans to use phased construction for the project. New ramps connecting directly to the tunnel and the temporary terminal are scheduled to complete by 2028, followed by the 2.1-million-sq-ft main terminal in 2032. The scope of the project also includes a separate storage and staging building.
The future terminal is designed to serve all-electric bus fleets and implement a sensor-based traffic management system. The Port Authority says it plans to seek LEED certification, and that the facility would feature onsite renewable energy, zoned heating and cooling systems and heat recovery and reuse systems.
To help fund the work, New York City and state officials announced a deal with the Port Authority in March for an estimated $2 billion in tax revenue from nearby commercial development sites.
