The Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) presented the 2012 Outstanding Project Award (OPA) to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for the design and construction of the Route 9A Pedestrian Tunnel at the World Trade Center in New York City. The award was presented to Robert Yin of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at the Awards Banquet during DFI’s 37th Annual Conference on Deep Foundations in Houston.
The project was selected by a committee based on size, scope and challenges of the project, degree of innovation and ingenuity exercised and the uniqueness of the solution to the difficulties of the job.
The Route 9A Pedestrian Tunnel is a long sought underground connection between all of Lower Manhattan’s transit lines, the World Trade Center and the World Financial Center (WFC). The previous connection was a bridge that required pedestrians to make significant level and directional changes to navigate the crossing. The positioning and elevation of the Route 9A pedestrian tunnel was established to provide pedestrians with a clear, single level, climate controlled corridor from the new WTC Transit HUB to escalators leading into the WFC Winter Garden. Creating this connection was a challenge because the WFC lies west of the heavily trafficked Route 9A, also known as West Street. Other challenges included coordinating the phasing of this project with adjacent construction activities at the WTC, the reconstruction of Route 9A, and the WFC’s redevelopment program. The limited access to the excavation areas and confined site logistics were further complicated by having to maintain six lanes of traffic on Route 9A at all times.
