Out of Thin Air: Realizing Commercial Value Over Rail

Résumé

Barry Charnish will focus his presentation on two significant and unique projects currently under construction in Midtown Manhattan – Manhattan West and the Western Rail Yards portion of the Hudson Yards project.

The Manhattan West Platform, for Brookfield Properties, is the first stage in a commercial development project to reclaim 2.6 acres of land over the busiest commuter rail corridor in North America. The platform spans over 16 tracks of Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and Amtrak lines just west of Penn Station, and supports the podium structures of Manhattan West, as well as portions of commercial and residential rental projects that vary in height from 58 to 62 levels and representing over 5.4 million sf of mixed-use development. Entuitive—a structural engineering consulting firm—was retained to design the foundations and platform support beams, and to develop the structural design of the long-span platform.

The Western Rail Yards development is Phase 2 of the massive Hudson Yards development in Manhattan – the largest development in New York City since Rockefeller Center. Approximately two thirds of this development will be built over the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) facility, on top of a platform that will be built as a physical separation from the operating rail road. The platform will serve as a roof for the LIRR facility and support the mixed-use development and public space above. Entuitive has prepared designs for four high-rise towers that rest directly on a platform structure that spans over sections of the 30-track rail yard. In addition to the construction over the tracks, the design uses support of the caissons located on rock.

In his presentation, Barry will address key design considerations, parameters and challenges including the coordination with ongoing rail operations, fire and smoke concerns, and constructability issues, as well as the design of the tower and organization of building loads down to the foundations.

With the densification of cities, easily developable sites are rare resulting in developers moving forward with sites that might not have been considered in the past, particularly those close to rail lines, subways, LRT lines, and highways. While these sites are more complex and expensive to develop, the increase in commercial value and benefit to city building is making these challenging projects more common.

** We are taking this opportunity to share with you the upcoming 12th Canadian Conference on Earthquake Engineering.

June 17-20 2019
Château Fontenac, Qc
http://www.ccee2019.org/