Alternatives Analysis/Environmental Impact Statement of the Extension of Subway Service From Manhattan to LaGuardia Airport

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]

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