SFMTA Officials Admit Central Subway Won't Open By December Deadline
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) -- Just five months away from the adjusted December target for completion, SFMTA officials now say they simply do not know when the trains will start running in the Central Subway.
Despite internal conversations about a possible one or two month delay past the December launch, the agency has publicly stood by the December timeline. After Thursday's briefing from Muni leadership, when the Central Subway might open is very much an open question.
Take a walk through the future Union Square station and the biggest project Muni has ever undertaken feels like it still has a long way to go.
The tracks are down, but the rest of the cavernous expanse stretching towards Market Street looks strikingly unfinished for a facility that was supposed to be used by passengers this year. Adding to the expanding timeline is the reality that getting construction finished is just part of the job.
"There's a lot of complicated things that have to happen before the subway can open," said acting Director of the SFMTA Tom Maguire. "Once the contractor is done, the MTA has got to get in there and make sure the trains run, that the systems run, that this is safe for everyone to ride."
Getting people on board and moving through the tunnels may take a while. Thursday Muni officials publicly acknowledged that the project is further behind schedule. And a new manager has now taken over the job.
"I'm looking at the whole project, top to bottom," said the new project manager Nabeem Tahir. "What is left? What are the complications of getting the remaining work finished?"
That review will last six weeks. At that point, Muni says it will have a realistic idea of when the trains might start rolling. Hanging over that six-week timeline -- and any additional future delays -- is the city's contentious relationship with the contractor, Tutor Perini.
"Part of the job of figuring out the schedule at this point means sitting down and having an honest conversation with our contractor," Maguire said in reference to the city's conversations with Tutor Perini. "We've been at the table with them and we've started to have some real productive conversations about this."
If there was some good news Thursday, it's that the street level work is still expected to be finished by this fall. That means any delays into next year would not extend the misery for people above ground, particularly the businesses in Chinatown, for whom this project is already a year behind schedule.
