Just in time for a pandemic keeping millions of New Yorkers at home, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday that the massive rehabilitation project of the L train tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn has been completed ahead of schedule.
“The tunnel is now done, better than before,” Cuomo crowed during an Albany press briefing. “It opens today.”
The MTA was originally poised for a 15-to-18 month total shutdown while it overhauled the tunnel, which was badly damaged during Superstorm Sandy.
But after a personal tour of the tunnel and consultation with a panel of experts, Cuomo announced at the eleventh hour in Jan. 2019 an alternative plan that would see the tunnel remain open on weekdays, with construction being carried out at night and on the weekend in between reduced service.
“The opposition to this idea was an explosion,” Cuomo said Sunday, the line punctuated by a slide in his presentation. “It was a thunderstorm of opposition.”
By September 2019, Cuomo was confident enough to predict that the project would be completed by April 2020, shaving the total timeline down to 12 months — which the governor said Sunday had been accomplished.
“It’s ahead of schedule, it’s under budget and it was never shut down,” he said.
Cuomo framed the project’s completion as a parable for New Yorkers looking to rebuild from the ashes of the coronavirus crisis.
“You can question and you should question why we do what we do,” he said. “It’s hard to make change in your own life, let alone on a societal, collective level.
“But if you don’t change, you don’t grow.”