Most days in East Harlem, a massive pile driver on Second Avenue slams into the ground, sending out thunderous bangs as workers build the city’s newest subway.
Businesses along the street are covered in scaffolding and fences, making it more difficult to attract customers. The construction worsens traffic in the area, which is one of Manhattan’s largest subway deserts.
It’s all part of a new way of life in the neighborhood that began earlier this year, when the MTA started heavy construction on its project to extend the Q line from East 96th Street to East 125th Street.
Many East Harlem neighbors and business owners said the short-term pain is worth the addition of a subway up Second Avenue, which has been promised for nearly a century. The new line aims to shave time off commutes and bring more commerce to Manhattan’s poorest neighborhood.
The construction is expected to last at least another five years, a timeline that highlights how hard it is to build a new subway in the country’s most densely populated city, below a neighborhood with more than 130,000 residents.
“[There’s] lots of banging, the trucks moving back and forth, and people talking with a loud tone of voice,” said Peter Mercado, who lives a couple blocks away from an MTA construction site on East 120th Street where crews are using the pile driver to dig out a space to install a tunnel-boring machine. “But you know, it's a bad thing now, but once they’re done, it'll be beneficial for the community.”
Aqel Sheet Metal on Second Avenue didn't have much space to work with before the MTA started subway construction out its front door.
La Bodeguita and Aqel Sheet Metal, which are both situated along Second Avenue, have taken financial hits this year as MTA contractors set up fences that obstructed their front entrances. But, like many locals in East Harlem, they see the long-term value in the new subway line.
“ We'll have to be patient with them. We can't fight the government,” said Said Aqel, owner of the sheet metal business. “ We survive because we are already established.”
La Bodeguita, a deli and convenience store, is feeling more pain because the noise from the pile drivers is driving away customers. The store’s owner, Evelio Morales, estimates they’ve already lost 40% of their average monthly revenue because “nobody can see the business” from the street.
Since construction began, the MTA has had regular monthly meetings with Manhattan Community Board 11 through a “Second Avenue Subway Task Force.” Community leaders and business owners in the group have called on the MTA to install signage for businesses covered up by construction and to make other improvements to mitigate the disruptions.
La Bodeguita has lost customers since the MTA began construction outside its front door.
Adem Brija, chair of the community board, said the MTA has become more responsive to community concerns in recent months after a rocky start to construction earlier this year.
During a May 26 public meeting, MTA Construction and Development Director of Public Affairs Joseph O’Donnell grew frustrated after Brija criticized the transit agency for doing little to keep businesses afloat during the major disruption.
“This is supposed to be a productive two-way dialogue, or is it just a b-tch session for lack of a better word?” O’Donnell said. “Because unless you are bringing answers to the table or solutions to the table, how are you helping move the needle?”
MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan said the agency is in regular contact with the community and hasn’t received many noise complaints. He did not directly respond to questions about O’Donnell’s remark.
“The MTA is committed to supporting local businesses throughout construction, with a dedicated outreach team that keeps owners informed, collaborates with them on signage needs, and responds directly to their needs as work progresses,” Donovan said in a statement.
MTA officials did not share how much money the agency set aside for community and local businesses affected by the construction. Passenger service is scheduled to begin on the Q line up to 125th Street and Lexington Avenue by 2032.
Jose Altamirao (left), the chair of the Second Avenue Subway Task Force, stands with Manhattan Community Board 11 Chair Adem Brija.
Brija said the partnership between the two sides has improved this summer. He said the MTA has installed lights inside dark scaffolding and seemed open to creating an “art corridor” to beautify the neighborhood, making it look less like a construction zone.
”The community board and specifically the task force, I think, has done more for the improvements over the last four to five months than any other governmental body or agency in the city, and I stand by that,” Brija said.
“Anything they did in phase one that was not successful, I'd ask that they reevaluate that and try something different,” he said. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”
Felix Rivera, 78, hopes the MTA finished the Second Avenue subway extension into East Harlem before he dies.
MTA officials have repeatedly defended their approach in East Harlem, noting they conducted extensive geological studies before digging and ordered an advanced tunnel-boring machine designed for the specific type of soil and rock under the neighborhood.
Outside La Bodeguita and next to the new construction site on East 120th Street, Felix Rivera, 78, said he doesn't care how the MTA builds the new subway, so long as it gets done. He noted the MTA started building a subway under Second Avenue in the 1970s, only to abandon the project in 1975 during the financial crisis, leaving behind half-finished tunnels.
Rivera said that as a teenager he and his friends used to explore those abandoned tunnels.
“I want to see it before I die,” he said.
