MTA Inches Closer To Long-Awaited Elevator At 68th St. Subway

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side community board got a look this week at the MTA's latest plans to build a wheelchair-accessible elevator at the 68th Street-Hunter College subway station — a process that has dragged on for years since it was first announced.

The MTA originally planned to build the elevator on the southeast corner of 68th and Lexington, under the overhang of a Hunter building. Now, the MTA has revised its proposal and intends to put the elevator on the northeast corner, after an engineering review revealed structural problems with the first plan, presenter Rich Wetherbee told Community Board 8's transportation committee Wednesday.

The project, which was first included in the MTA's 2010-2014 capital program, has experienced years of delays despite agitation by disability rights advocates, THE CITY reported in October. Seven stations included in that five-year plan have already gotten elevators installed, according to THE CITY.

After local and federal agencies approve the new plans, the MTA hopes to award a construction contract in late June 2021, with intensive, street-level construction starting next October and lasting through July 2023.

The current plans also call for new stairway entrances to be built on the southwest corner of 69th and Lexington, and within the retail space at 931 Lexington Ave. Existing stairways on the southeast, northeast and northwest corners of 68th and Lexington would all be rebuilt and relocated as well.

That northeast corner staircase, the MTA's presentation noted, will be built in a parking lane "rather than adjacent to the Imperial House" — an apartment tower whose residents have strongly opposed a new subway entrance near their building over fears that it would introduce noise and other disturbances.

Two more elevators will also be built within the station, heading to each side of the subway platform. To accommodate the street-level elevator, the sidewalk on 68th Street will be expanded into a parking lane currently reserved for NYPD vehicles, which will result in more overall pedestrian space, Wetherbee said.

The MTA also wants to widen the staircase on the southeast corner of 68th street but would need approval from CUNY, which controls the space.

A 2016 environmental assessment by the Federal Transit Administration found that the project would have "no significant impact" on the surrounding neighborhood.