Upper East Side Subway Stop Finally Becoming Accessible For $101M

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An inaccessible, heavily-used Upper East Side subway station will finally get its elevator, the MTA said this week, promising an end to a drawn-out process that will cost the agency millions of dollars once it is built.

Since as far back as 2008, the MTA has been trying to build an elevator at the 68th Street-Hunter College station on the 6 line — a station whose average of 23,430 weekday passengers before the pandemic ranked it in the top 15 percent of all stations citywide.

But the process has been repeatedly delayed, in part due to pushback from residents of the nearby Imperial House apartment complex who said a new station entrance would spoil the "residential and pristine quality of 69th Street."

Meanwhile, the project's estimated price tag has ballooned from an initial $67 million to more than $120 million by last year, THE CITY reported.

Now, a planning document released ahead of Wednesday's MTA board meeting says the project is finally on track to break ground, consisting of an elevator on the northeast corner of Lexington Avenue and East 68th Street, along with a relocated stairway on the same corner.

Two other new entrances will also be built on the southwest corner of 69th and Lexington and the mid-block of Lexington inside Imperial House's former retail space, while an existing stairway on the northwest corner of 68th Street will be rebuilt. The sidewalk near the elevator will also be extended to accommodate the moved stairway.

Prior plans to widen the staircase on the southeast corner of 68th Street appear to have been scrapped — the MTA said all along that it would need permission from CUNY, which controls the space since it is under the overhang of a Hunter College building.

The MTA will hold a construction kickoff meeting in January 2022 to begin work on the 36-month project, which could wrap up by December 2024, according to plans shared with Patch.

MTA board members will vote Wednesday on the contract being awarded to Forte-Citnalta JV for construction of the elevator at a cost of $101,750,000 — a lower price than the figure reported last year, but still a fairly staggering sum.

The 68th Street station is one of 100 "key stations" that the MTA identified starting in 1994 as priorities to be made accessible by 2020. Now, it is the very last of those stations that remains inaccessible, with other stragglers like Astoria Boulevard and Chambers Street finally getting their elevators last year.

Delays at 68th Street have dragged on despite years of agitation by disability rights advocates.

"As an older person, just trying to get up and down those stairs starts to exhaust you," 58-year-old Manuel Rodriguez told THE CITY last year, while hauling a luggage cart up the station's staircase. "I’m getting up there in age, so an elevator would make such a big difference."

Related coverage:

• MTA Inches Closer To Long-Awaited Elevator At 68th St. Subway
• UES Subway Station Elevator Cost Doubles After Delay, Report Says