Tuesday, June 22, 2010

71st Ave subway station to get an elevator

From the Queens Chronicle:

The 71st-Continental Avenue subway station is one of the busiest in Queens, carrying four lines and connecting to three bus routes in the heart of the Forest Hills commercial district. After decades of requests, plans for handicapped accessibility to the station are moving forward with an elevator design submitted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The MTA submitted its first design for the elevator a year ago, for the southeast corner of 71st Avenue and Queens Boulevard, where the sidewalk would extend out, making turns more difficult for cars and reducing the size of the eastbound Q60 bus stop.

Alongside the added pedestrian space, architect William Singer of Gruzen Samton LLP also promises more space underground.

The downside cited by CB 6 members is the removal of one staircase on each platform to accommodate the platform-to-mezzanine elevator. Board member Lynn Schulman also expressed concern that the expanded sidewalk would displace the taxi pick-up location.

While unable to provide the exact cost and timeline of the project, Raskin said that the first stage of construction is estimated at $7.5 million.

13 comments:

Sergey Kadinsky said...

It was a typo, please believe me if I tell you it's 71st Avenue.

Anonymous said...

An elevator would be nice for the handicapped, the elderly and the vandals. But could they please provide some ventillation in that station so that there is at least SOME air down there in the summer??

Anonymous said...

HAHAHA do you think these TA workers ride the subway.......keep dreaming

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provide some ventillation

Anonymous said...

Yay! Another mobile porta-potty.

Anonymous said...

HAHAHA do you think these TA workers ride the subway.......keep dreaming
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Actually, I see them riding the train all the time, in various dress stages of their uniforms, occupying seats meant for paying passengers, eating away at their Mcdonalds or Kennedy fried chicken, and carrying on loud conversations way beyond the pain threshold of normal decibel levels.

Anonymous said...

I'm happy the station is getting an elevator(.)

Pardon me if I don't join the bitch and moan party.

Anonymous said...

It probably cost a lot less than $7.5 million to build the entire station in the 1930's.

Anonymous said...

I'm happy the station is getting an elevator(.)

Pardon me if I don't join the bitch and moan party.
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Lipstick on a pig my friend.

Anonymous said...

Community Board 6 is excellent, they certainly will scrutinize this issue hold everything up. Good work!

Anonymous said...

I got to see the elevator installation process at 57th St/7th Ave. It was completed about a year late, forced the long closure of one of the stairways and now that it's done, the elevator frequently out of service. Similar situation when they installed one at 179th in Jamaica a few years back.

Trilby said...

They should make escalators instead. They don't get peed on and when they break, they're stairs at least.

Anonymous said...

Everybody wants an elevator, then bitch endlessly when they get it. "It will make it harder to turn!" "What about the taxi stand?" "Less stairs is bad!"

WTF? You can't make space out of thin air. Where in hell do you want the elevator to go? Middle of friggin' queens blvd?

Common sense, people. Common damn sense.

Liftplus said...

Good to see an elevator added where it was needed.