By Carol Tannenhauser
The curtain has parted on the new subway elevator shaft that was recently installed on West 81st Street and Central Park West, completing the steelwork phase of the project.
Longtime reader Joseph Martin tipped the Rag off to “a big visual update in the process of building the new elevator….As a big supporter of expanding transit access, I appreciate getting to see a very clear visual milestone pass for this project,” Martin wrote.
Begun in September 2024, the elevator is on schedule for completion by Christmas, 2026, Polly, an MTA engineer, told the Rag at the site. “Next comes glass,” Polly added.
The shaft arrived earlier this month by truck in the middle of the night, according to an MTA construction update. In the morning, it was lifted by a crane, swung over Central Park West, and set in place in the enormous hole that has been drilled into Manhattan’s notoriously hard metamorphic rock – all while stopping traffic for only ten minutes.
Watch the entire video of the installation here.
With the frame in place, the MTA says they’re “ready to fill in the dirt, pour concrete around it, and install the elevator itself.” The agency reiterated that, “by the end of this year, there will be a direct-to-platform elevator in the heart of the Upper West Side.”
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.
