In September 2020, The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) initiated the rehabilitation of the 11th and final MTA tunnel under a major body of water that was damaged by more than 1.5 million gallons of water during Superstorm Sandy, the Rutgers Tube Project.
This major project required the work to be done during overnight hours and on weekends to avoid fully closing the tube and inconveniencing over 35,000 riders during those times.
The work included rehabilitating systems and components within the tube that were damaged by the storm and also replacing other parts that needed to be updated with more modern equipment, including track, signal equipment, power, and communication cables – that’s where MKJ came in.
The Rutgers tube rehab was the first to utilize the fast-track design-build approach, rather than design-bid-build and MKJ Communications was thrilled to be a part of this groundbreaking project.
Our scope of work on the project included:
- Provided RF Distributed Antenna System design, equipment, and testing
- Fiber testing for cellular wireless system
- Copper communication infrastructure engineering for the entire tube
- Provided all of the communication terminal boxes
- Sound powered telephones
We were also brought in to make sure the fiber work for the cellular wireless service was expedited after another contractor was unable to finish on time.
During the last couple of months, John, Neil, Jose, Julio, Sahil, Rucha, Tae, Calvin, and Salah, worked nights and weekends to help our customer meet their deadline. We were under intense pressure to finish on time and not only did we make the deadline, but we went the extra mile, helping our contractor with the fiber integration which wasn’t in our original scope of work.
Internally, we know what an incredible job our team did, but it’s always nice to get validation from our project partners, including the NYCT and TC Electric, who mentioned that without MKJ this job would not have happened.
“I wanted to personally thank you and the entire MKJ team for the efforts put forth to help make the Rutger’s project the overwhelming success it is. MKJ stepped in at a critical time and without your expertise (and many sleepless nights), we certainly would not have gotten the same outcome, and when I speak of our extraordinary sub-contractors, MKJ certainly leads the way. We are looking forward to many more successful projects together.” Robert Hershenfeld, President, TC Electric
Interested in learning more about this project? We can talk you through each and every step of the design and build phase, or better yet, meet us at the site or at our brand new office where we can walk you through our state-of-the-art fabrication warehouse and you can see our products up close. Contact John Massaro, our vice president of engineering and operations, at Jmassaro@mkjcomm.com
