Whether New York's Second Avenue subway line will open by the end of the year is still an open question, according to an independent engineering consultant on the project.
"Systems testing remains our concern," Kent Haggas of McKissack Group Inc. told the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's capital project oversight committee on Wednesday. "Basically, the progress to date needs to be almost tripled on a weekly basis to give us confidence that we'll finish everything by the end of December."
According to Haggas, workers failed to complete key project timetables for October. They include testing of elevators and escalators, and that of station fire alarms.
MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast held out hope that the $4.5 billion opening phase will begin on time.
"There's still a ways to go," he said, "and we're still hopeful for Dec. 31."
The long-delayed megaproject is intended to alleviate crowding on the north-south Lexington Avenue corridor along Manhattan's East Side. The first phase would add four stations from 63rd to 96th streets.
