MTA Restoration Of Rockaway Stations To Begin Next Summer
Great news for residents of the Rockaway peninsula. Starting next summer the MTA will restore every single station on the peninsula except for Beach 116th Street which is already under renovation. The news was featured in an article in last Friday’s The Wave, the local newspaper for the Rockaways. I would like to thank Subchat poster “NEPONSIT2006” for sharing the article courtesy of The Wave:
Rockaway Train Stations To Get Overhaul
MTA Allocates $142 Million For Renovations
By Miriam Rosenberghttp://www.rockawave.com/news/2007/1123/Community/062.html
Platform canopies, like this one on the Beach 105 Street platform, will be replaced as part of the renovations being made along the Rockaway line.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority has confirmed that it will begin a $141.8 million restoration of the Rockaway subway line beginning next summer.
The renovation is part of the agency’s 2008 fiscal budget.
“Every single station on the peninsula – Rockaway Beach and Far Rockaway – will be rehabilitated, with the exception of Beach 116 [which is already undergoing renovation],” said Aaron Donovan, a spokesperson for the MTA.
The following are among the restorations that will be made on the Rockaway line, starting in July 2008.
The Mott Avenue station will be made compliant with the Americans with Disability Act by installing an elevator and putting up Braille directional signage. Modifications to the platforms will be made to reduce the gap at the ADA boarding areas.
From the Beach 25 Street to Beach 105 Street stations, the work will include repairing or replacing corroded stairs and columns and rehabilitating the mezzanine and track drainage systems. At all stations, all spalling [breaking or splitting] concrete and delaminating steel will be repaired. New lighting systems will be installed and additional ADA work will be done along the Rockaway line. New platform canopies will be installed at the Beach 90, 98 and 105 Street stations.
Rusted, corroded stairs all along the line will be replaced or rehabilitated.
In June, State Senator Malcolm Smith was the first to announce the upcoming renovations at a meeting at Arverne By The Sea.
“They are going to fix up every single station along the ‘A’ line,” said Smith, who added that he and Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer were able to push the restoration through.
No timetable has been set for the upcoming work.
“There is no tentative date for completion,” said the MTA’s Donovan. He also could not answer what service interruptions, if any, would be caused by the renovations.
The nine stations along the Rockaway route are at least 51 years old. Four stations – Beach 90, Beach 98, Beach 105 and Beach 116 Streets, connect Rockaway Park with Broad Channel. Mott Avenue, along with Beach 25, Beach 36, Beach 44, Beach 60 and Beach 67 Streets join those areas to the mainland.
Columns along the line are scheduled for repairs.
Elevated train service to Rockaway Park and Wavecrest began on June 28, 1956. On January 16, 1958, the subway line was extended to include the Mott Avenue station in Far Rockaway.
As an October 5 photo essay in The Wave showed, the elevated train line in Rockaway is in desperate need of repair, with rusted, decaying stairs, chunks of concrete missing from the trestles and other deficiencies that make the line a disaster waiting to happen.
Idefinitely think this is great news for residents of The Rockaways who for years were forgotten about by the MTA if you ask me. The area is ripe for development & is filled with tons of potential. The subway service should match what the full potential of the area is. I see this has a great step in that direction. You can check out the long thread on Subchat about the planned renovations by clicking here.
xoxo Transit Blogger
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