Any chance remaining of changing the elevator-only 116 St station on SAS 2?
When it first came out last year that the only way to access this new station will be with elevator bays leading to a lower mezzanine there was rightfully plenty of backlash.
But when challenged in the only public comments period soon after the announcement, the response was firmly “it has to be elevator-only because of the lower mezzanine” and “it has to be a lower mezzanine because it’ll reduce on-street construction and also somehow lower costs”. I’m no engineer, but it seems this requires significantly more work and excavation than a simple cut-and-cover stair entrance to connect to the existing tunnel, even with utility relocations. But even if not, this is short-term gain for permanent loss in a less-accessible station, as emphasized by the ETA in their new analysis pleading with the MTA to not make similar mistakes on SAS West.
Had hope last year that this could still have been modified, but construction is imminent now. Are East Harlem residents—promised subway access for over a century—just doomed to this critical station being elevator-only and unnecessarily complex to access? Is there anything left that can be done?