PATH's downtown restoration program

On September 11. 2001, the terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center (WTC) in Lower Manhattan. New York City also damaged the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corp.'s (PATH's) busiest terminal serving the heart of the thriving downtown financial, commercial, and residential district. The aftermath of the attacks also forced the closure of PATH's key station at Exchange Place that serves Jersey City. New Jersey's expanding "gold coast" business and residential area. PATH's more than 260,000 average weekday commuters between New Jersey and New York were affected in some way by these tragic events, and PATH ridership fell sharply during the following months. Among the PATH facilities that were damaged or destroyed at WTC, and in the two Hudson River tubes, and at Exchange Place Station were all of the electrical, power, signal, and communications systems. Recovery and restoration work began immediately, but was hampered by the extensive rescue, recovery, removal, and demolition work at the World Trade site. Broken water lines and fire fighting efforts flooded both river tubes, which were later sealed at Exchange Place to prevent additional potential damage to PATH's New Jersey facilities. This paper describes PATH's recovery program to replace the electrical, power, signal, and communications facilities from Exchange Place to the WTC Terminal. A temporary WTC terminal has been built to restore direct service to Lower Manhattan's financial, business, and residential center as of November 23, 2003. As part of this program, new trackwork was installed to enhance operational flexibility and provide temporary interim service to Exchange Place Station, which reopened June 29. 2003. Capacity expansion provisions were included to allow for future 10-car train operations when a new rail car fleet is procured. Facilities replaced include a new traction power and auxiliary services substation, new cables, ductbanks, new signals and central control system, wayside phones, emergency power removal switches, tunnel lighting, radio antenna, and fiber optics. An accelerated design and construction schedule was followed, using a broad combination of in-house, consulting, and contractor forces.