East Side Access

To relieve capacity congestion at Penn Station New York, and to provide LIRR passengers with direct access to East Midtown Manhattan, the LIRR will provide a new service into Grand Central Terminal (GCT) connecting the Port Washington Branch and Main Line tracks within Harold Interlocking in Queens to the lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel. A new rail station will be added in the vicinity of Sunnyside Yard in Long Island City. The proposed LIRR facility at GCT would consist of a ten-track/five island platform facility for the exclusive use of LIRR passengers and trains. Deep excavation, new tunneling and extensive underpinning work will be required.

YU & Associates, Inc. (YU) supervised and coordinated the field exploratory work performed inside the Grand Central Terminal, inside active tunnels and rail yards, and on city streets. The analytical work included stress-strain analyses and retaining structures design for the various tunnel segments, chambers, shafts, emergency exit structures and reception pits. Numerical models were developed to analyze the stress-strain behavior of the soil and rock media around the tunnels using Phase 2. PLAXIS and GROUP were used to analyze deep excavations and pile foundations.