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SEVENTH AVENUE SUBWAY

In order that subway connection might be made possible between the Grand Central terminal and the Pennsylvania Railroad station and for the additional convenience of thousands of passengers who use the latter station daily, the Commission, by dint of extraordinary effort, placed in service a portion of the Seventh Avenue subway between Times square and 34th street on June 3, 1917. A two-car shuttle service was instituted on this occasion, carrying passengers to a point from which the Pennsylvania station might be reached after a short walk.

A few weeks later construction of platforms was sufficiently completed to permit the train to run to 33d street and thus give direct access by passageway to the Pennsylvania station.

JAMAICA AVENUE EXTENSION

Passengers were carried for the first time on the new companyowned Jamaica Avenue extension of the Broadway (Brooklyn) Elevated railroad on May 28, when approximately half of that line was placed in use between 111th street, Greenwood Avenue station, Richmond Hill, and the former terminus of the line at Cypress Hills. Service was begun in the early morning hours without celebration and in the presence of only a few officials of the operating company, the New York Consolidated Railroad Company, of the B. R. T. system. The partial opening of this line, however, came as a great convenience to many passengers who formerly were restricted to trolley lines or to the Long Island Railroad for transportation. Completed, the line will extend to Cliffside avenue, Jamaica, and when operation to that point begins, will meet the rapid transit needs of one of the most thickly populated communities in Queens borough. The Jamaica Avenue line is a two-track structure throughout and will cost when completed about $2,000,000. The portion placed in service is approximately two linear miles and 4.5 track miles in length.

NEW UTRECHT AVENUE LINE

The principal portion of this line was placed in service on various dates during the summer of 1916; on July 29 of that year

operation was extended to the 25th Avenue station to and from which point trains operated through the remainder of 1916 and to July 21, 1917, at which time the structure had been completed so as to warrant the extension of service to a temporary terminal at Coney Island. Service to the seaside resort was eagerly welcomed, as it offered a new and important means of access to the city's summer playground and provided an important source of relief to the traffic upon the other rapid transit lines in South Brooklyn.

WEST FARMS CONNECTION

On Sunday, July 1, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, by direction of the Commission, officially began operation of the new West Farms connection between the east side elevated railroads in Manhattan and The Bronx and the West Farms branch of the First Subway. Regular operation of trains, however, began on the following day, when about twenty elevated railroad (Second Avenue) express trains, originating at the Freemen Street station on the West Farms Subway branch, were placed in service via this route. The West Farms connection, so-called, although only a small link in the great Dual System chain, being but a few blocks long, has important functions to perform. Already it has been shown to serve the purpose for which it was constructer!, namely, to afford relief at one of the most congested elevated stations in the city at 149th street and Third avenue and to obviate the necessity of further using the present grade crossing connection at 150th street and Third avenue between the elevated railroad and the West Farms branch of the subway. The connection extends from the Third Avenue line in the vicinity of 143d street, over private property and Willis and Bergen avenues, to the West Farms branch of the subway. This connection cost to construct, exclusive of equipment, approximately $150,000.

BRIGHTON BEACH LINE

Late in 1916, on application of the officials of the B. R. T. system, the Commission allowed a cessation in the service of the Brighton Beach line in Brooklyn from Sheepshead bay to Coney Island in order to permit of the reconstruction of that line between Sheepshead Bay and the new Coney Island terminal for the

Brooklyn lines. The company was permitted to halt service only by providing certain other facilities for its passengers and by agreeing to have the reconstruction of the line completed so that service could be had to Coney Island during the period of heavy traffic in the summer months. Construction work was advanced sufficiently to permit the new line to be placed in operation to the Ocean Parkway station on April 22, 1917, and from Ocean parkway to Gravesend avenue on May 30, 1917.

CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS AWARDED BY THE CITY

The letting of construction contracts under the Dual System Agreements is, as stated above, now practically ended. Only five such contracts out of a total of about ninety yet remain to be awarded. The Commission, however, must still let a considerable number of contracts for station finish, track installation, track materials, other incidental and miscellaneous work, and for other materials for Dual System construction. Several contracts were awarded during the year and a number executed and delivered which were awarded in 1916.

As indicating the approaching completion of the Dual System it may be noted that but one general construction contract was awarded during the year, namely, that for the construction, exclusive of furnishing the steel, of Route No. 31, the Livonia Avenue Elevated branch of the Eastern Parkway subway. At the same time the Commission let a contract for the steel necessary for this line to a separate contractor. Of the several contracts awarded, a considerable number were for so-called "odds and ends", in connection with Dual System completion, while others. were for construction work on Section No. 2 of Routes Nos. 19 & 22, the elevated portion of the Southern Boulevard, Westchester Avenue and Pelham Bay Park branch of the Lexington Avenue subway, the contract for which, awarded in May, 1916, was declared forfeited during 1917 and a part of which work was completed by the Commission with its own forces. The history of this contract has been partially related in the Annual Report for 1916. The essential facts in connection with the Commission's action in 1917 will be found elsewhere in this Report.

This line is one assigned for operation under the Dual System Contracts to the Interborough Company.

The Commission also in one or two instances rescinded awards of contracts for reasons which appeared justifiable and in another case permitted the withdrawal of a contractor who found the conditions imposed by one of the operating companies as a prerequisite to carrying out his contract-conditions the Commission was unable to control to be so onerous that he asked permission to withdraw. The reasons for the Commission's action in these cases will be found on other pages.

There follows a résumé of the various contracts awarded or considered by the Commission during the year, classified as to operating companies:

LINES FOR

OPERATION BY NEW YORK MUNICIPAL
RAILWAY CORPORATION

Route No. 49, Section No. 3; Culver Rapid Transit Railroad. -This is a three-track elevated railroad, extending from the 38th Street cut in Brooklyn to and over Gravesend avenue, Shell road and private property to Coney Island. At the 38th Street cut, provision is made for the transfer of passengers to trains of the Fourth Avenue subway and the New Utrecht Avenue line. Sections Nos. 1 and 2 of this road, together with the connection into the 38th Street cut, are already practically completed. The Commission withheld for several months the awarding of a contract for the construction of Section No. 3, pending the outcome of negotiations with the officials of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit system as to what portion of the line between Avenue X and Coney Island, constituting the approach to the Coney Island terminal of the Brooklyn company, should be built by that company. Late in 1916, the Commission, when the negotiations had failed, decided to proceed with the construction. Hearings were held on the contract early in 1917, provision being made in the advertisement for three different forms of contract under two proposed systems of construction. One form called for the construction of Section No. 3, some 3600 feet in length, together with the necessary labor, steel and additional materials, being the general type of construction contract previously let by the Com

mission. Another called for the supply of structural steel necessary for the line, and a third for the erection of such steel, together with the other construction work incidental thereto and to the completion of the line. The purpose of thus variously seeking bids was in the hope that more favorable prices might be received for the structural steel than were generally prevailing in the market at the time bids were received, namely, on July 5, 1917.

No bids were received on the form of contract which provided for the furnishing of steel, its erection, and for construction work. The Commission was unofficially informed that the uncertainty of the steel market was such as to make contractors wary in respect of bidding on furnishing steel.

One bid under the form of contract calling for the furnishing of structural steel alone was offered by the American Bridge Company - while five other contractors presented bids for the erection of such steel and the doing of the incidental work. The proffer of the American Bridge Company to furnish the necessary steel, some 7400 tons, was $502,686, while the lowest bid received for erection, that of the Oscar Daniels Company, amounted to $184,525.

With its bid the American Bridge Company transmitted a letter, in which it stated that it would not begin the fabrication of the steel called for by this contract until the fabrication of all other steel called for by subway contracts previously awarded to it, had been completed. This would involve a period of at least twenty months from the date of delivery of the contract before fabrication of the necessary steel could begin. In addition, the company stated. that it could give no date for the completion of the order and furthermore declined entirely to bid on certain of the items included in the Commission's specifications. Therefore, on recommendation of the Chief Engineer of the Commission and on motion of Commissioner Travis H. Whitney, a resolution was adopted by the Commission on September 12, 1917, unanimously rejecting all of the bids.

On October 29 the Chief Engineer of the Commission reported that, in view of the difficulty of obtaining structural steel, studies had been made by the Commission's Engineering Department to

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