East End Gateway, for which WSP served as the program manager, provides a high-capacity entrance to Penn Station’s Long Island Railroad (LIRR) concourse and easy access to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) 1/2/3 and A/C/E subway lines. The project consisted of two major phases:
Phase 1: New Penn Station entrance on 33rd Street west of 7th Avenue, known as the East End Gateway, directly down to the 33rd Street Concourse consisting of a steel and glass canopy, three escalators and stairway to increase passenger access with added entrance and egress from the LIRR Train Hall.
Phase 2: Double the width of the 33rd Street Concourse, raise the ceiling height to 18 feet and construct other improvements in the LIRR facility, including new lighting, refreshed floor, wall and ceiling finishes, new wayfinding signage, rehabilitated and expanded electrical, HVAC systems, expanded back-of-house facilities, and enhanced the accessibility with one new and four elevator replacements and a new elevator communication system.
The WSP team provided a complete suite of professional management services to the MTA C&D and LIRR project management team, seeing the project through to completion on time and on budget. The team overcame multiple challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic, including safety concerns and delays in materials shipped from other countries. An innovative design-build approach sped up construction, taking advantage of reduced passenger flow due to the pandemic.
Our team provided expert staff across all areas of project management to include design support services across all functional areas from code compliance and construction management services to client support services including office engineers, IT support, graphics and videography, outreach and communication, and technical writing.
Transit riders will now have access to three state-of-the-art escalators and a new staircase, effectively doubling vertical transportation capacity. Additionally, a glass and steel canopy now rises 40 feet over the streetscape bringing natural light into the concourse as well as wider and brighter concourse areas marking a new era for Penn Station.
