Construction began today on the linchpin of Related Companies' Hudson Yards megaproject: the platform that will cover the 26-acre West Side rail yards. The platform, which will weigh 37,000 tons and cover 30 tracks between 30th and 34th Streets, will support three of the first four towers rising as part of phase one. It involves drilling 250 concrete caissons into the bedrock below the rails, and all the while, the trains will keep on running in and out of Penn Station. It's an incredible and complicated feat of engineering, but Related sent out the above video and some helpful graphics (after the jump) to explain the process to the masses.
Construction on the first towerthe 895-foot, 1.7 million-square-foot 10 Hudson Yards, i.e. the only one that's being built on actual earthstarted in August 2013, and the rest of the buildings will start to rise on the platform before the entire thing is complete, as shown in the graphics above. The entire first phaseeastern platform and four towerswill be complete by 2018. The graphic below explains how the different parts of the platform will work together with the towers, and how the entire development relates to the railroad tracks. Crain's also has a great in-depth explainer about the engineering.
Once the eastern half of the platform is built, work will commence on the western half, which will hold phase 2 of Hudson Yards. There are still a lot of questions about financing for this section, but Related head honcho Stephen Ross told Crain's that the "whole eastern yards will be under construction this year. We've been talking to investors. We have global partners, both domestically and internationally. The interest in this job has been unbelievable. We feel very, very confident." So, in other words, Ross feels that financing for all of phase one is ready to roll. When the entire megaproject is complete in 2024, Hudson Yards will measure a whopping 17-million-square feet.
· Hudson Yards coverage [Curbed]
· Construction of Hudson Yards platform begins [Crain's]
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