An L train station stands in the popular Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg on January 03, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (AP) — Expertise from Europe helped speed the repair of a busy New York City subway tunnel linking the trendy Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg to Manhattan, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday as he announced that trains would resume regular operation on Monday.
The Democrat said that the project on the L-line that was supposed to last 15 months instead was finished by Sunday, three months ahead of a revised schedule and $100 million below budget.
Cuomo highlighted the work to repair damage from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 during his daily news conference about the coronavirus.
He mentioned the project as he announced that construction projects would be the first to resume once hospitalization of COVID-19 victims sufficiently subside.
Cuomo had nixed the original plan to shut down the train tunnel entirely during repairs projected to last 18 months. That plan would have affected about 250,000 daily riders. A revised schedule called for it to be completed in 15 months. It took one year.
Cuomo credited academic leaders from the Cornell University and Columbia University engineering schools, saying they recommended new construction methods and technology used in transit systems around the world.