Successful Completion of Critical Superstorm Sandy Repairs and Resiliency Work Restored Weekend  Service between Manhattan and Brooklyn at midnight on Sunday, June 24

See Photos from the Project Here 

MTA New York City Transit announced today that critical work to repair and rebuild the Clark Street Tube beneath the East River was completed on time and on budget, and  service between Brooklyn and Manhattan resumed at midnight earlier today. The tube was badly damaged during Superstorm Sandy.

The robust repair and resiliency project includes a massive amount of cabling and conduit replacements, major pump room work, improvements to communication and control systems in the tunnel, and track and signal repairs.  Sensitive equipment like pump controls were hardened and raised in height to be protected from potential future storm events, making the entire  lines more resilient and reliable.

“More than 145,000 customers take the  lines through the Clark Street Tube between Manhattan and Brooklyn each day, yours truly among them,” said MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota.  “This project is critical to the long-term viability of the  lines and will help keep the system protected from future catastrophic events. I’m also especially proud that the project came in on time and on budget. Ensuring that we’re keeping to schedule and doing things in an efficient manner is a major priority of mine and this helps reinforce that the MTA can get big things done. I look forward to riding the  on weekends again.” 

“We’re working hard to regain the trust of our customers by showing that we can keep our word and get meaningful work done to improve the everyday experience of customers,” said NYC Transit President Andy Byford. “The resumption of service through the Clark Street Tube is an example of precisely that.  I commend the project team for a job well done. As a result of their tireless efforts, customers on the  lines can once again ride seamlessly between Brooklyn and Manhattan on weekends.”

As part of the project, NYC Transit personnel installed:

• 99,000 feet of copper communication cable
• 54,000 feet of fiber optic cable
• 29,000 feet of radio antenna cable
• 32,000 feet of signal cable 

Personnel also:

• Repaired structural defects over 11,000 feet of tunnel
• Performed 1,500 feet of necessary track work

The Clark Street Tube consists of a pair of 1.2 mile-long tunnels built in the early part of the 20^th century. Clark Street was one of nine New York City Transit subway tubes flooded by salt water and damaged by the record storm surge that took place during Superstorm Sandy in October of 2012. After the storm surge flooded the tube, it took six days to pump out more than half a million gallons of corrosive salt water and return the tube to operational capacity. The damage left in the storm’s wake ensured that further work would eventually need to be done if the tube was to be viable in the long term.

To facilitate its reconstruction that began in 2017,  service was rerouted during weekends so crews could fix integral components such as electrical and communications equipment, pumps, tracks and signals. The weekend work took place each weekend over the course of a little more than a year. 

The Clark Street Tube is the seventh such tube project to be completed since Sandy. 

The entire repair and reconstruction project cost $71.6 million and was performed by TC Electric Corp. with support from NYC Transit personnel.

For recent photos from the project, click here. For photos during Sandy and Sandy-related damage on MTA property, go to MTA’s Flickr page.