[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 60 (Tuesday, March 30, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15197-15200]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-7779]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
Alternatives Analysis/Environmental Impact Statement of the
Extension of Subway Service From Manhattan to LaGuardia Airport
AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration, DOT.
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an alternatives analysis/
environmental impact statement (AA/EIS).
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SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (MTA) New York City Transit (NYC Transit)
intend to prepare an Alternatives Analysis/Environmental Impact
Statement (AA/EIS) in accordance with the National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA) for transportation improvements in the corridor between
LaGuardia Airport and Lower and Midtown Manhattan. MTA NYC Transit will
ensure that the AA/EIS also satisfies the requirements of the New York
State Environmental Quality Review Act. The work being performed will
also satisfy the FTA's alternatives analysis requirements and
guidelines.
This effort will be performed in cooperation with the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA), the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA), the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the New York
City Departments of Transportation and City Planning and the New York
State Department of Transportation. Other interested agencies and
elected officials or bodies include the New York State Office of the
Governor, the New York City Office of the Mayor, the Office of the
Borough President of Queens, the New York City Planning Commission, and
the New York City Council.
Its proximity to Manhattan makes LaGuardia Airport ideally suited
to the Manhattan-bound business traveler. However, travelers to
LaGuardia must use frequently congested highways (Grand Central
Parkway, Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Long Island Expressway) and river
crossings (e.g. Midtown Tunnel, Tri-borough Bridge). Peak period travel
times between Manhattan and LaGuardia are frequently an hour or more,
and uncertainty regarding travel times forces travelers to set aside
even more time to avoid missing flights or appointments in Manhattan.
Unless corrective actions are taken, these access limitations will
reduce both the airport's appeal to travelers and the attractiveness of
the city as a national and international center.
Many other major cities in this country and abroad have direct rail
rapid transit access to their airports. In contrast, transit service to
LaGuardia is infrequent or inconvenient, with relatively high fares and
lengthy and unreliable travel times in peak periods (since the
available transit modes depend on the same congested highways and local
streets). However, many LaGuardia passengers have origins or
destinations within the Manhattan Central Business District (CBD),
which has an extensive existing rail rapid transit network with
extensions into Queens. This
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combination forms an established base from which an attractive transit
link to the airport could potentially be built.
Given these problems, the AA/EIS will evaluate public transit
improvements in the corridor between Lower and Midtown Manhattan and
LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York. In particular, the focus will be
on proposed extensions of existing rail rapid transit (subway) lines
that presently operate in Manhattan and Queens, and which would be
extended along a selected alignment to provide service to the airport.
Scoping of the AA/DEIS will be accomplished through correspondence
with interested persons, organizations, and federal, state and local
agencies, and through public meetings. See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
below for details.
During the initial months of the AA/DEIS process, MTA NYC Transit
will work with other agencies and with the general public to identify
potentially feasible alternatives for providing prompt, reliable,
dedicated access between Lower and Midtown Manhattan and LaGuardia
Airport. These alternatives should take full advantage of the city's
existing extensive public transit network, and provide travelers with a
``single-seat ride'' from points throughout the Manhattan CBD to the
airport. Only those alternatives found to meet the project's needs,
goals and objectives would receive detailed consideration in the AA/
DEIS. In addition to possible new transit lines or services, the AA/
DEIS will also evaluate a No-Build alternative and a Transportation
System Management (TSM) alternative. See the Alternatives discussion
under SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION below for details.
DATES: Comment Due Date: Written comments on the scope of alternatives
and impacts to be considered should be sent to the MTA-NCY Transit
offices by May 28, 1999. See ADDRESSES below.
Scoping Meetings: The public scoping meetings will be held on
Tuesday, May 11, 1999 starting at 6PM (sign-in begins at 5PM) at the
Steinway School (IS141) at 37-11 21st Avenue in Astoria, New York, and
on Wednesday, May 12, 1999 starting at 6PM (sign-in begins at 5PM) at
the Metropolitan Transportation Authority offices in Manhattan. See
ADDRESSES below. People with special needs should contact Douglas
Sussman at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority offices at the
address below or by calling (212)-878-7483. Both meeting locations are
accessible to people with disabilities. The Queens location can be
accessed by subway (Astoria ``N'' line at the Ditmars Boulevard
Station), and by the Q19A and Q101 bus lines, which also connect to the
E and F subway lines at the Queens Plaza station, and to the #7 subway
line at the Queensboro Plaza station. Limited public parking is
available near the site. The Manhattan location is within several
blocks of the #4, 5, 6 and 7 subway lines (at the Grand Central
station) and the B, D and F lines at 42nd Street at 6th Avenue, and to
numerous local bus routes on Sixth, Fifth and Madison Avenues and along
42nd Street.
The meetings will be held in an ``open house'' format, and project
representatives will be available to discuss the project throughout the
time period given. Informational displays and written materials will
also be available. In addition to written comment, which may be made at
the meeting or as described below, a stenographer will be available at
the meetings to record comments.
ADDRESSES: Written comments on the project scope should be sent to Mr.
Thomas R. Jablonski, Project Manager, MTA-NYC Transit, 130 Livingston
Street, Room 7068-D, Brooklyn, New York 11201. The scoping meetings
will be held at the following locations: Steinway School (IS 141), 37-
11 21st Avenue, Astoria, New York 11370, and the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority, 5th Floor Board Room, 347 Madison Avenue, New
York, NY 10017.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brian P. Sterman, Federal Transit
Administration, One Bowling Green, Room 429, New York, New York 10004-
1415. (212)-668-2201.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Scoping
FTA and MTA-NYC Transit invite interested individuals,
organizations and federal, state and local agencies to participate in
defining the alternatives to be evaluated in the EIS and identifying
any significant social, economic or environmental issues related to the
alternatives. Scoping comments may be made at the public scoping
meeting or in writing. See DATES and ADDRESSES section above for
locations and times. During scoping, comments should focus on
identifying specific social, economic or environmental impacts to
evaluate, and suggesting alternatives that are more cost effective or
have less environmental impact while achieving the similar
transportation goals and objectives.
Scoping materials will be available at the meetings or in advance
of those meetings by contacting Mr. Thomas Jablonski at MTA-NYC Transit
as indicated above.
II. Description of Study Area and Project Need
The study area and travel corridors involved are wholly within New
York and Queens Counties. They primarily include Lower and Midtown
Manhattan (the Central Business District (CBD) of Manhattan) and those
portion of northern and northwestern Queens through which passengers
and employees pass on their way to and from LaGuardia Airport. The
Manhattan CBD is one of the largest and most dense employment
concentrations in the world, but also includes a major residential
population. The involved areas of Queens include numerous commercial
and industrial centers as well as major residential areas.
Existing transit service between the Manhattan CBD and LaGuardia
Airport includes: (a) Gray Line bus service from various CBD locations;
(b) ferry service from Lower Manhattan to LaGuardia's Marine Air
Terminal (MAT); and (c) local bus lines connecting existing subway
lines to the airport (e.g., the Q33 and Q47 bus routes connecting with
the ``E,'' ``F'' and ``R'' subway lines at the Roosevelt Avenue
station, the Q48 bus route from the ``7'' subway service at Main
Street-Flushing, and the M60 bus route from the ``N'' subway service at
the Astoria Boulevard station). The available paratransit services in
this travel market include medallion taxis, private car and limousine
services, and private vans and mini-buses operated by hotels and other
Manhattan operations.
As noted above in the Summary section, all transit and paratransit
modes serving the airport (except the ferry service to the MAT) must
use combinations of local streets, arterials, highways and bridges and
tunnels, many of which are highly congested during the travel periods
when airport demand is the greatest. In addition to traffic congestion
and the associated air and noise pollution, travel by these existing
highway-dependent modes is often unrealible--a fundamental problem for
time-sensitive air travelers.
Given the need to address these airport access problems, the
primary goals for the LaGuardia Airport Subway Access (LASA) project
are to (a) provide convenient, reliable and safe public transit access
for airport passengers and employees between Lower and Midtown
Manhattan and LaGuardia Airport, (b) develop public transit options
providing a ``one-seat'' (i.e., transfer-free) trip between Lower and
Midtown Manhattan and multiple LaGuardia
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Airport terminals, (c) improve the quality of public transit service
and reduce the travel time within the study corridor from LaGuardia
Airport to the Manhattan CBD, (d) reduce the use of congested highway,
river crossings, local streets and arterials by LaGuardia Airport
passengers and employees, thereby reducing areawide traffic congestion,
(e) increase mobility by better serving the critical Manhattan CBD-to-
LaGuardia Airport travel market, and by creating improved connections
within the region to the Manhattan CBD, (f) attract new ridership to
public transit through the initiation of additional service to
LaGuardia Airport, (g) minimize impacts to airport operations during
and after construction, and ensure that proposed alignments do not
preclude other planned improvements on- or off-airport, (h) promote and
reinforce economic development and the quality of life in New York, (i)
more efficiently accommodate forecasted growth in LaGuardia Airport
passenger trips, (j) conform to the New York State Air Quality
Implementation Plan (SIP) as required by the Clean Air Act Amendments
of 1990, (k) avoid, minimize and mitigate degradation of the natural
environment, and (j) provide reliable transit service that is
compatible with existing transit systems in the region.
Adherence to these goals should help identify new services that
take full advantage of the city's extensive transit network in the
Manhattan CBD and Queens, maximize the potential for a ``single-seat''
ride from Lower and Midtown Manhattan to LaGuardia, preserve the city's
quality of life while supporting economic development, and minimize the
degradation of the natural environment.
The objectives to be used to facilitate the process of selecting a
locally preferred alternative are to (a) identify viable alternatives
that address the corridor's transportation problems while meeting the
project's goals; (b) develop criteria for screening and evaluating the
alternatives based upon the project's goals; (c) identify the
anticipated impacts for each alternative with potential mitigation
strategies; (d) initiate the development of cost/benefit projections
that are used for project considerations; and (e) identify the locally
preferred alternative for study in the FEIS.
III. Alternatives
The AA/DEIS process will include a review of proposed alternatives
that could potentially meet the project's goals and objectives, and the
selection of those alternatives that warrant detailed study in the AA/
DEIS. This process will insure that all reasonable and feasible
alternatives are considered. It is projected that the AA/DEIS will
consider the following alternatives, at a minimum:
(1) No Build Alternative, representing future conditions in the
travel corridors between the Manhattan CBD and LaGuardia Airport with
no new transportation projects or services, other than those already
committed to by local officials and agencies.
(2) Transportation Systems Management (TSM) Alternative,
representing future conditions with the implementation of one or more
lower-cost measures to improve the efficiency of existing
transportation systems, rather than significantly expanding those
systems (e.g., improvements to the existing express bus services,
subway-to-bus connections to the airport, etc.).
(3) Build Alternatives, involving construction of facilities and
implementation of associated transit services between the Manhattan CBD
and LaGuardia Airport. In recent decades, the MTA, PANYNJ and other
public agencies have performed extensive studies of possible transit
connections to this airport. Based on those studies and on further
studies by MTA NYC Transit of possible extensions of the BMT Broadway
Astoria Line (``N'' Train service), the following two subway
alternatives are scheduled to be considered in the AA/DEIS. These are
preliminary alignments for these alternatives, with further refinements
expected throughout the AA/DEIS process in both the off- and on-airport
sections:
The 19th Avenue Alternative would be an extension of the
BMT Broadway-Astoria Line (``N'' Train service) beyond its present
Ditmars Boulevard Terminus. From that point, the line would be extended
northerly as a modern aerial transit guideway structure along the
centerline of 31st Street up to 20th Avenue. From there, the alignment
would curve easterly across the Con Edison property to 19th Avenue,
where it would continue along the avenue. At 45th Street, the alignment
would swing northerly and then enter a tunnel section, in which the
alignment would remain as it crosses onto the airport property. After
serving the Marine Air Terminal and passing around the runway at the
airport's western end, the alignment would rise onto an aerial section,
and extend to two other on-airport stations--one at the Central
Terminal Building (CTB) and a second to jointly serve the USAir and
Delta terminals.
Sunnyside Yard Alternative would be a branch of the BMT
Broadway-Astoria Line (``N'' Train service) starting at the Queensboro
Plaza Station in Long Island City. From that point, the alignment would
extend as a modern aerial transit guideway structure along the northern
side of the Sunnyside Yards, and would then pass over and run along the
eastern side of AMTRAK's Northeast Corridor tracks. At approximately
30th Avenue, the alignment would turn east and run along the northern
side of 30th Avenue before turning north along the Brooklyn-Queens
Expressway (BQE). At that point, the alignment will enter a ``depressed
section'' (where the tracks are below grade but in an ``open cut''
section rather than enclosed in a tunnel) as it travels along the
southern side of the Grand Central Parkway (GCP). As it approaches the
airport, the alignment would rise and cross over the GCP to enter the
airport. On-airport stations are projected to be provided at the CTB
and USAir/Delta terminals as noted above for the 19th Avenue
Alternative.
(4) Other Alternatives. The FTA and MTA NYC Transit will review
other possible Build alternatives that may be raised throughout the
scoping process. Any other alternatives found to potentially meet the
project's goals and objectives, as outlined above, would also be
analyzed in the AA/DEIS.
IV. Probable Effects
The FTA and MTA NYC Transit plan to evaluate in the AA/DEIS all
potentially significant social, economic and environmental impacts of
the project alternatives. Impacts proposed for analysis include changes
in the physical environment (air quality, noise, water quality,
geology, visual); changes in the social environment (land use,
residential, commercial or industrial displacement or disruption,
changes in neighborhood character or cohesion); changes in traffic and
pedestrian circulation (on local streets, highways and arterials, and
at the airport) and associated changes in traffic congestion; impacts
to parklands or historic sites; changes in transit service, mobility
and patronage; capital, operating and maintenance costs for proposes
transit services; and financial and fiscal implication. Impacts will be
analyzed for both construction-period activities, and for long-term
operation of the alternatives.
Construction-period impacts projected to be of importance for this
project include noise and vibration, traffic diversions due to
temporary roadway closures, temporary loss of on-street parking, and
short-term
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disruptions to subway service. Potential long-term impact of likely
importance include traffic, parking and pedestrian flow impacts near
stations (including on-airport locations), visual impacts due to the
introduction or extension of transit lines into an area, noise impacts,
and property acquisitions and residential or commercial displacement to
provide space for alternatives' right-of-way or support facilities.
Each alternative will be analyzed for potential transportation,
environmental, social, economic and financial impacts as required by
current Federal (NEPA) and State (SEQRA) environmental laws and current
Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and FTA guidelines and will be
evaluated for it's ability to meet the project's goals.
V. FTA Procedures
In accordance with federal transportation planning regulations 23
CFR part 450, the AA/DEIS will include a comprehensive alternatives
selection process, which will assess each possible alternative's
ability to meet the project's goals and objectives, and determine those
alternatives that warrant detailed analysis. Upon completion of the AA/
DEIS, the MTA NYC Transit, in concert with other agencies and elected
officials and bodies, will select a locally preferred alternative.
Then the MTA NYC Transit, as the project sponsor, will seek to
continue the further engineering and preparation of the Final EIS.
After consideration of the results of the FEIS, the FTA and MTA NYC
Transit and the FAA will prepare required environmental decisions and
Records of Decision (RODs). The publication of these RODs will clear
the way for the final design and construction of the finally selected
alternative.
Issued on March 25, 1999.
Letitia Thompson,
Regional Administrator, Federal Transit Administration.
[FR Doc. 99-7779 Filed 3-29-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-57-M
