Manhattan’s far west side, once a strip of ports and rail yards, has been reclaiming underutilized land for upscale development in recent years. And none to quietly, as construction hammers away on several projects west of Ninth Avenue.
Just a block away from Penn Station is Brookfield’s $4.5 billion mixed-use Manhattan West project, which this week reached the halfway point in creating 120,000 square-feet of new land over active tracks.
Building Over Rails
It’s not entirely nothing, as a $7 million custom-built horizontal crane (called “The Launcher”) was brought in from Italy especially to lay concrete spans above trains coming in and out of Penn Station. A crane like this is usually used to build large infrastructure like bridges.
“We had to be a little innovative so we didn’t disrupt traffic into the city,” said Henry Caso, vice president of Manhattan West construction.
