The 42nd Street New Passageway Project at Grand Central Station, one of the most technically demanding underground transit connections to be constructed in New York City, has been named the 2025 American Shotcrete Association (ASA) Outstanding Shotcrete Project Award winner in the Underground category.
The award program recognizes the year’s most exceptional achievements in shotcrete application, honoring projects that demonstrate purpose-driven engineering, innovation, precision and engineering excellence in complex environments.
“This recognition reflects the skill and teamwork that drive STV’s approach to challenging underground infrastructure,” said Frank Pepe, PE, senior vice president and national director for tunneling and geotechnical engineering at STV. “By combining rigorous design with practical, field-driven insight, our team delivered a solution that improves mobility for the millions who rely on this transit gateway.”
As the designer‑ and engineer‑of‑record on the design‑build team, STV guided construction of the new underground pedestrian tunnel linking the No. 7 Flushing Line’s 42nd Street station to Grand Central Terminal. Positioned beneath the high‑traffic East 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue intersection, the passageway expands circulation capacity, relieves congestion and improves accessibility to better serve riders across one of Manhattan’s busiest mobility corridors.
To navigate dense utilities, limited rock cover and century‑old adjacent structures, STV engineered an intricate excavation and support sequence using the Sequential Excavation Method (SEM). The design integrates lattice girders, rock dowels, fiber‑reinforced shotcrete, waterproofing systems and real‑time instrumentation monitoring, supported by extensive 3D finite‑element modeling. These techniques enabled construction to proceed safely while keeping the city moving: an achievement central to the project’s recognition by ASA.
STV was honored alongside its partners, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Skanska USA Civil Northeast, Patriot Shotcrete & Constructors LLC, Naik Consulting Group, and Gall Zeidler Consultants.
The project was also recognized by the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York’s (ACEC New York) 2026 Engineering Excellence Awards program, receiving a Diamond Award – the program’s highest level of recognition – and is a finalist for the statewide Empire Award at April’s award banquet.
