New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo surprised subway commuters on Thursday when he announced that the planned 15-month shutdown of L train tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn that was scheduled to begin April 27th will instead become a high-tech and untested rescue plan.
The news may come as a relief to some L train riders who were growing increasingly stressed about the impending shutdown. But the new repair plan, in which track work would take place on nights and weekends, may prove to be equally problematic considering it has never been attempted in a tunnel restoration project.
This is a “major, major breakthrough,” Cuomo said during a press conference. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority would use an innovative engineering design...