MTA nickels and dimes commuters

 

Eyewitness News 

The MTA proposed an increase to the subway and bus fare to $2.90 by Labor Day.

It is a 15-cent increase from the current $2.75 base fare, and the first fare hike since 2019.

"A lot of the stations are still dirty," rider John Delaruz said. "They are not in commission as often. I don't see the benefit in raising the price right now."

Weekly MetroCards would increase a dollar to $34 and 30-day MetroCards would go up $5 to $132.

Express bus fare would increase a quarter to $7 and seven-day bus passes would increase $2 to $64.

This year's planned fare hike will be closer to the standard 4% increase, which is typically how much the fare goes up every other year, instead of 5.5% originally floated, thanks to Governor Kathy Hochul's budget.

However, a planned 5.5% toll revenue increase remains in place.

Straphangers were less than pleased with the proposed hike.

Even Executive Director of the MTA's Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee Lisa Daglian acknowledged that fare hikes are necessary to keep the transit system rolling.

"Improving the discount options for riders across the system, ensuring there is equity across increases so that those who can least afford them have access to more options is critical," Daglian said. "That includes raising eligibility to fair fares to 200% of the federal poverty level from the current 100% level."

The last fare increase on trains and buses was in 2019. There was not a fare increase in 2021 due to the pandemic.

In addition to buses and subways, fares on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North would also go up by about 4%.

The MTA also anticipates that with congestion pricing, more commuters will want to take the subway and commuter rail.

Officials unveiled two possible scenarios for drivers. One rewards E-Z Pass users with a 6% increase, vs a 10% increase for tolls by mail. The other spreads the pain, with a 7% increase for both E-Z Pass and toll by-mail users.

The LIRR's Ides Of March

NY Post

The MTA was warned a decade ago that the Long Island Rail Road’s Jamaica hub would be overwhelmed and face frequent commute meltdowns — like the ones commuters have been forced to endure all week, The Post has learned.

The dire prediction came in an analysis of the Jamaica, Queens station’s capacity, completed in 2012, that simulated service changes nearly identical to the one launched by the MTA this week to its new $11 billion terminal on the East Side of Manhattan and found it would overwhelm operations at the station.

“Evaluation of the new operation on the existing conditions indicates an inability of the current infrastructure to accommodate the higher volume of service during the morning peak period and evening westbound direction due to cascading delays,” the analysis determined.

The simulation showed trains arriving into Jamaica on-time 93% of the time under the then-current runs, even when encountering routine service disruptions, like a medical emergency on a platform or a mechanical problem with a train.

But the on-time percentage with the new service plummeted to just 72%, a 21% point drop, the analysis prepared by San Diego-based TranSystems Corporation determined.

The prophetic study found that the operational collapse occurred even if the MTA simplified the Jamaica operation by axing one-seat service from Long Island to Brooklyn and instead ran a shuttle to Atlantic Terminal — and even if officials axed timed transfers to boost station capacity by reducing the amount of time trains spend parked at the platforms.

A key fix, the analysis determined, was to replace the low-speed switches that run through Jamaica Station — which limit trains to just 15 mph — with more modern systems that allow trains to run at 30 mph or faster.

MTA officials approved spending $85 million to do just that in 2020 — some eight years after the engineering report was completed. That project is not expected to be completed until December 2027.

It does not appear that the MTA ever made the analysis public, but it was heavily excerpted in an academic article that the firm subsequently prepared, which was published in 2014.

 

LIRR Proposing to End Essential Link from Kew Gardens to Forest Hills

Over this past summer, the Long Island Railroad & the Metropolitan Transit Authority, announced that the LIRR East Coast Corridor, with service to the new Madison Station Platform at Grand Central Terminal, will commence by the end of this year - winter 2022.

Initially this was great news and that which LIRR commuters have been awaiting to hear for two decades. Unfortunately for us, with the release of the LIRR's proposed new train schedules for service, we now see that the LIRR-MTA is actually taking away vital service between Kew Gardens and Forest Hills.

 

 

 

 

 

Click here to view the draft LIRR schedule for Kew Gardens and Forest Hills, which eliminates all train stops between the two, in either direction! Thus one would no longer be able to take the train at Kew Gardens and get off at Forest Hills, and vice versa. However, this two-minute ride provides a CRITICAL LINK between our two communities which MUST BE MAINTAINED.

The MTA & LIRR want to hear from communities how they feel about the new schedule. This is our chance to tell them!

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO COMMENT AND LET THE LIRR-MTA KNOW THAT SERVICE BETWEEN KEW GARDENS & FOREST HILLS IS ESSENTIAL TO US AND MUST BE RETURNED TO THE SCHEDULE.

IN DETAIL HERE'S WHY:

1. This link between the two stations enables Kew Gardens residents, especially the elderly, young families and the differently abled, to reach quickly and easily healthcare facilities and businesses unavailable in Kew Gardens.

Forest Hills is the hub for many medical facilities, especially ones that are UNAVAILABLE in Kew Gardens, e.g, specialized medical offices, medical labs, radiology services, hospital, clinics etc. In addition, the Kew Gardens community both needs and supports the many Forest Hills small businesses which have no counterpart in Kew Gardens. 

                                                                                               

2.  Given the new alternate Manhattan destinations, i.e., Penn Station and Grand Central, the destination link between Kew Gardens & Forest Hills helps to move traffic. For example, if you miss the KG train to the Eastside, you may be able to switch at Forest Hills for their next train to the East side, etc. and arrive in good time.      

 

3.  Such links between stations/communities continue to exist on many, if not all other LIRR lines - just not for Kew Gardens. Moreover, those using LIRR to access those local stations even have a special reduced fare, while Kew Gardens riders pay the full fare (as much as $6.50) to just Forest Hills, the same as if they were going to Manhattan or the Hamptons.  In just one example, the two-minute ride between Manhasset and Plandome LIRR stations, remains on the new schedule, costs seniors and the disabled $1.50, regular-fare payers also pay just a small percent of the final destination fare to and from Manhattan.

 

The link between Kew Gardens and Forest Hills is critical to our community, and now especially with the stifling of Queens Blvd for local motorist and public buses with under utilized bike lanes, the underground Subway stations in constant disarray - the massive jail structure and all the chaotic traffic it will bring, looming heavy - it is essential that the LIRR link between our two, interdependent neighborhood eco-systems, must be maintained.

Thank you.

Sylvia Hack

Governor Hochul does not understand financing the $2.6 billion LIRR main line third rail track

 

Either Governor Hochul's ghost speech writer and/or transit adviser has no understanding of the relationship between MTA and the Federal Transit Administration along with how the MTA & LIRR fund its Capital Program when it comes to the $2.6 billion LIRR Main Line Third Track project..

Governor Hochul's State of the State speech referenced accessing $1.1 trillion federal Infrastructure Program to pay for the $2.6 billion LIRR Main Line Third Track.  This makes no sense. (Source: "Gov. Hochul promises to complete LIRR Third Track project this year" -- Newsday, January 6th by James Gormley).  In 2017, the MTA added $3 billion which included $1.95 billion for LIRR Main Line Third Track to the $29 billion 2015 - 2019 Five Year Capital Program Plan. 

 This brought it up to $32 billion.  These dollars supplemented $600 million previously available resulting in the project being 100% fully funded.  The MTA LIRR could not have legally awarded construction contracts without this. A majority of the work has been completed with eleven months to go. Most funds have already been spent.  

 The LIRR followed state SEQUA rather than the federal NEPA environmental review process.  Compliance with NEPA is a requirement to be eligible for Federal Transit Administration funding. Why would FTA consider funding for this project when it is already 100% locally funded and close to completion?  Is this a back door way for the MTA to substitute federal funding to offset the missing $15 billion in Congestion Price Tolling revenues? 

 The MTA $51 billion 2020 - 2024 Five Year Capital Plan was adopted under the assumption that $15 billion would come from Congestion Price Tolling.  Not a dime will appear until June 2023 or later. How will the MTA raise $15 billion over 18 months rather than five years? This project is not included in the MTA February 8th 2022 FTA Program of Projects Pubiic Hearing Notice.  Here is the link to the document

Sincerely.

Larry Penner

(Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for the MTA, NYC Transit, Long Island Rail Road, Metro North Rail Road  MTA Bus along with 30 other transit agencies in NY & NJ). 

Rockaway rail line transit/park space debate continues

 

Queens Chronicle

The past month has reignited a debate about the future of a defunct rail in Queens.

Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Rockaway Park) shed some attention on the efforts to transform the abandoned Rockaway Beach Rail Line running through Central and South Queens when she asked for federal infrastructure to create a new rail line along the tracks.

But for years, The Trust for Public Land, a conservation group, has been lobbying to convert a 3.5-mile path along the abandoned rail into the QueensWay, a park similar to Manhattan’s High Line, stretching from Rego Park to Ozone Park.

Unlike the plan to create a rail line that would require federal support, the fate of the QueensWay project will ultimately rely on the city’s capital budget. While the estimated cost to create a train line ranges from $6.7 billion to reactivate the rail spur for the LIRR to $8.1 billion to create a subway connector, a 2014 study for the QueensWay pegged it at an estimated $120 million, a cost that would come out of the mayor’s capital budget, said Karen Imas, a volunteer advocate for the project.

The QueensWay recently got some new publicity after mayoral hopeful Andrew Yang mentioned it as a key part of his plan to invest in park space. Nine mayoral candidates have endorsed the New Yorkers for Parks Five Point Plan for Parks Equity that mentions building new parks like the QueensWay as a priority. On Wednesday former Sanitation Department Commissioner Kathryn Garcia held a press conference in which she joined Yang in explicit support of the QueensWay.

Yang’s campaign website said that while he’s aware of the need to improve transportation in South Queens, he doesn’t believe a subway to be feasible and he’s committed to seeing the trail through to fruition. The platform adds that the QueensWay would add to the area’s transportation through offering multimodal transportation, such as safe walking and bike paths that build access to the neighboring bus stops and subway lines.

Imas said that the pandemic has awakened an appetite for more green space “and needs around parks, the needs for more safe cycling in areas that don’t have a lot of bike paths or safe cycling areas.”

Within the span of Woodhaven, Richmond Hill and Ozone Park that the park would cut through, there are five contiguous ZIP codes that contain no bike lanes or cycling infrastructure whatsoever.

Imas added that though the estimated cost of the project is over $100 million, the construction of the path would take a phased approach, and the request for its first phase would cost somewhere between $20 and $25 million.

On the other hand, Pheffer Amato said that part of her intention in writing the letter asking for federal funding for the rail was to make sure “the conversation about this railroad stays active.”

“The MTA knows two things about our district: We want the toll removed on the Cross Bay Bridge, and we need better transportation options in Southern Queens and that the RBRL is a solution to that problem,” said Pheffer Amato in a stateme

Structual problems at Bayside LIRR station are being neglected

There are ongoing problems at the Bayside Long Island Rail Road Station that impact several thousand dally riders. I give the LIRR full credit for installation of new concrete ties and ballast.  This will insure a safer and more comfortable ride. They have also recently completed repairs to sections of the west bound platform edge.

As you can see by the accompanying photos, there is still other significant outstanding maintenance and repair work to be done. The original wooden support beams for various sections of the canopy have deteriorated.  Pigeons have moved into the rotting bottom section of the west bound canopy stairs roof. Other portions of the canopy roof are also in need of repair.  Pigeons droppings can be seen at the bottom of the west bound stairs and second set of stairs for the east bound platform.  The metal structure supporting the over pass connecting the east and west bound platforms have begun accumulating rust.  There is also a hole in one of the east bound steel stair cases.  Pigeons have also found a second home in the hole on the roof over the ticket office side facing the platform.

Why has the LIRR waited so long to allow these issues to grow even worse? When will the necessary repairs to these structural deficiencies be dealt with and completed? - Larry Penner

Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked 31 years for the US Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration Region 2 NY Office.  This included the development, review, approval and oversight for grants supporting billions in capital projects and programs on behalf of the MTA, NYC Transit bus and subway, Long Island and Metro North Rail Roads, MTA Bus and NYC Department of Transportation along with 30 other transit agencies in NY & NJ).

 

Governor Cuomo gifting Belmont Park developers with a train station

NY Post


A controversial plan to bring a new $1.2 billion arena and entertainment venue to state-owned Belmont Park will now include a $105 million full-service stop on the Long Island Railroad, Gov. Cuomo announced Monday.

The station serving Belmont, NY, is a huge score for the New York Islanders arena project and will be situated between the Queens Village and Bellerose stations on the LIRR’s Main Line, just east of the Cross Island Parkway.

A press release put out by the governor’s office claimed it will the cost the arena developers – a partnership that includes the owners of both the Islanders and New York Mets — $97 million of the estimated $105 million price-tag.

However, state officials later clarified that the developers are only paying $30 million up front with the remaining $67 million to be covered by a no-interest, multi-decade state loan. The state will pick up the remaining $8 million.

The news didn’t sit well with project opponents.

“Obviously the State of New York wants to play hide the puck, and pretend that arena developers are paying for a massive transportation project instead of the taxpayers and commuters, and they buried that actual fact in the fine print. That is a disrespect, and cardinal breach of public trust,”said Tammie S. Williams of the Belmont Park Community Coalition.

Borough President candidate Crowley proposes resuscitation of LIRR passenger train line

 

 NY Daily News

A little-used stretch of train tracks in Queens could be the key to filling transit deserts in the borough, community leaders say.

The Long Island Railroad’s Lower Montauk branch, which runs 8.5 miles between Long Island City and Jamaica, could be used to bring new passenger rail service to communities like Maspeth and Glendale, which do not have subway stops.

The LIRR ran commuter trains along the line until 1998, when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority closed its stops due in part to low ridership. Now, the tracks service freight trains and are used as an extra storage space for Sunnyside Yard.

The chief advocate of the project, dubbed the QNS, is former Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Queens). She commissioned an independent feasibility study in 2017, which was completed shortly after she left office in early 2018.

Crowley has recently renewed her push for the line — she hosted an event Friday to begin assembling a non-profit to stump for the project.

 Her proposal would bring nine stops to the stretch, and would cost an estimated $2.2 billion to pull off. The 2018 study projects that it would serve roughly 21,000 weekday riders.

Community leaders and advocates of the project disagree with that assessment, noting that the areas it will serve expect to boom in the coming years.

“Look at the growth in Long Island City and the growth in the Jamaica downtown area and at JFK Airport,” said longtime transportation consultant Philippa Karteron, an advocate of the project. “If we could put something like this together, the corridor could be an economic development corridor, bringing in businesses, bringing in jobs.”

Unlike the BQX, another Queens-oriented transit project, Crowley’s idea isn’t supported by real estate developers — she says she’s working to form a grassroots campaign that has community boards involved from the get-go.

This actually isn't a bad idea considering the severe and desperate need for transit in this overcrowded and overburdened city but that rendering of Hillside Ave. in Richmond Hill is a hysterically inaccurate depiction of the citizenry in that area. And very racist in it's prescience of what the designers think it will look like if the station is built there.

Kew Gardens LIRR Station has an urban blight street art display.

Hi Crappy,thought you'd like to see the view people get of Kew Gardens from the LIRR.This has been like this for years.

Lefferts Blvd businesses worried about winter

From AMNY:

Merchants in a Kew Gardens retail strip atop a Long Island Rail Road overpass want years of delayed repairs iced out before the winter, when they say the lack of insulation leaves people shivering and water freezing in pipes that are prone to shatter, exacerbating the damage sustained from leaky roofs.

The businesses say the LIRR has been issuing notices to the management company contracted to maintain and lease the storefronts, but a tougher stance is needed to end the years-long saga.

"The railroad sent a letter, sort of an ultimatum, to Zee N Kay Management," said Nathalie Reid, who owns Thyme Natural Market, at 81-22 Lefferts Blvd., about a notice issued last month. "We've been sort of sitting here holding our breath to find out what's going on, and no one has gotten back to us."

"If we have another bad winter and our pipes freeze and they start exploding again, then we're going to be back to square one," said Reid. "We would like them to at least address something to do with the plumbing."

Progress at Farley, but what about Penn?

From PIX11:

The 106-year-old Farley Post Office Building is across the avenue from the busy transit center. New entrances have opened in the facility that lead to railroads.

A big project has been underway since 2016 and it is scheduled to open in 2020.

The new train hall will feature new platforms and tracks for LIRR and Amtrak and there will be commercial space.

From The Real Deal:

The City Council and James Dolan’s Madison Square Garden Company appear to be headed toward another clash over plans to relocate the iconic sports stadium.

Madison Square Garden is now at the midway point of the 10-year timetable the city laid out in 2013 for the stadium to relocate and make way for a modern Penn Station.

But with five years left on its special operating permit, MSG appears to have taken no significant steps toward what would be a years-long process of acquiring a new site and constructing a new stadium.

“We have not provided any public information” on the matter, MSG spokesperson Kimberly Kerns told The Real Deal.

Stakeholders such as the Regional Plan Association and the Municipal Arts Society that have called for the Garden to move said they have not been informed of any plans to do so. Madison Square Garden has not filed an application with the City Planning Commission to extend its special permit, and sources said the City Council hasn’t been made aware of the stadium’s future plans.

The City Council made it clear five years ago that it expected MSG to be gone by 2023, but a Council spokesperson would not say whether the legislative body expected the Garden to stick to the deadline.

LIRR platforms to be widened

From the Forest Hills Post:

The Long Island Railroad train platforms at the Forest Hills and Kew Gardens stations will be lengthened to accommodate two additional train cars, LIRR President Philip Eng announced yesterday.

The project will lengthen the platforms by 50 percent to allow six cars to meet the platform instead of the current four. LIRR trains can be up to 12 cars long, the railroad said.

The plan is intended to address crowding and reduce delays by helping customers to board and exit trains more easily, the LIRR said.

Both the north and south platforms at each station will be lengthened with fiberglass decking supported by steel scaffolding.

The Forest Hills and Kew Gardens stations have an average weekday ridership of 1,967 and 1,778 passengers, respectively. In recent years, Forest Hills has become a more popular destination for Forest Hills Stadium event attendees.

Hope for the Lefferts Ave bridge

From the Queens Chronicle:

At a Wednesday meeting with elected officials and civic leaders, Long Island Rail Road President Phillip Eng said the MTA has devised a plan to save the Kew Gardens span and the handful of small businesses on top of it, according to multiple people who were at the gathering.

“It was a productive meeting. The LIRR came back and said there’s a way to fix the bridge to make it stable,” Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal (D-Flushing) told the Chronicle on Wednesday. “There’s a very clear pathway forward to rehabilitate the bridge. Nothing is done until its done, but it was a very optimistic meeting.”

The MTA originally said last May that the century-old span had decayed to the point where it would have to be torn down come 2020 — the year the entrepreneurs’ collective lease expires.

But in the 14 months since, mass community outrage led to both the MTA softening its position and state lawmakers passing legislation calling for a bridge rehabilitation feasibility study.

Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills) even allocated $1 million for one.

But shortly after Eng took over as the head of the LIRR, he met with area lawmakers and civic leaders in June to hear their concerns and discuss how to potentially save the span.

In the following six weeks, Rosenthal said, Eng stayed true to his word.

“I’m not an engineer, but there is a way to — underneath the bridge — remove the deteriorating concrete and replace it,” the assemblyman said. “Today, [the LIRR] came back and they showed it was more than just words. They showed they have a realistic, tenable plan.”

Hope for Lefferts Ave Bridge?

From the Queens Chronicle:

The battle to save the Lefferts Boulevard bridge — and the handful of small businesses atop it — has been raging for more than a year now.

But at no point in that fight has Assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal (D-Flushing) been more optimistic that Kew Gardens residents and leaders alike will win in the end.

“Their attitude has changed to, ‘How can we save the bridge?’” Rosenthal said of the MTA. “There are a lot of obstacles ahead, but things are looking up.”

His optimism stems from a May 24 Borough Hall meeting hosted by Borough President Melinda Katz and attended by a laundry list of officials, including new Long Island Rail Road President Phillip Eng, state Sens. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) and Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans), Rosenthal, aides to Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills), Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Forest Hills) and Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing), MTA State Legislative Affairs Director Tim Ellis, Community Board 9 Chairman J. Richard Smith and a handful of Kew Gardens civic activists.

At the gathering, Eng expressed a willingness — even a desire — to save the bridge that no one else at the MTA or LIRR had done with similar vigor, according to multiple attendees who spoke with the Chronicle this week.

“We’re all on the same page. We all want to save the bridge,” Addabbo said. “We’re starting from common ground.”

According to Kew Gardens Improvement Association President Sylvia Hack, Eng told the crowd that he will take about four weeks to look over internal engineering reports before coming back to the community with a more informed opinion about how, or if, the bridge can be salvaged.

LIRR discounts for some Queens residents

From the Times Ledger:

The MTA will temporarily offer discounted rates with a pilot program for commuters traveling between Brooklyn and Queens from Atlantic Terminal on the Long Island Rail Road to experiment how offering lower fares will affect ridership.

The study, called Atlantic Ticket, will offer lower rates to LIRR riders who commute through the Brooklyn hub in an attempt to fill seats on these trains, which have greater capacity than those traveling to and from Penn Station.

The stations in Queens where commuters can take advantage of $5 rates at all hours are in Hollis, Jamaica, Laurelton, Locust Manor, Queens Village, Rosedale and St. Albans.

The $5 fare will represent a 51 percent reduction in price from the peak hour charge of $10.25 and a 33 percent decrease from the off-peak $7.50, the MTA said.

The MTA said this would make up for the $2.75 a customer would have to pay for a transfer to the subway.

NY&A deemed dangerous by worker safety group

From Newsday:

A national worker safety watchdog group has named the Long Island Rail Road’s freight provider as one of the most dangerous employers in the United States. The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, an advocacy group, included the New York and Atlantic Railroad, or NYAR, in its “Dirty Dozen” list of companies that put workers and communities at risk.

"Safety is our top priority and the LIRR is reviewing its relationship with New York and Atlantic," LIRR spokesman Aaron Donovan said Friday.

The Glendale, Queens-based railroad, which has worked as the LIRR’s official freight service provider since 1997, was among other U.S. employers on the list, including Amazon and Tesla Motors.

The safety council said its criteria for inclusion on the list was 'severity of injuries to workers; exposure to unnecessary and preventable risk; repeat citations by relevant state and federal authorities; and activity by workers to improve their health and safety conditions.'

Because the LIRR isn't packed enough now

From Crain's:

The city’s Department of Transportation is studying ways to get more New Yorkers to use commuter rail lines and take pressure off of the beleaguered subway system, public documents show.

The department has tapped engineering firm AECOM to look at potential changes that would boost ridership on Long Island Rail Road and Metro North lines running within the five boroughs.

Reducing fares within city limits, for example, would entice more residents to use commuter rails like the subway system and connect more neighborhoods to transit hubs like Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station in Manhattan, Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn and Jamaica and Woodside stations in Queens.

“AECOM is under contract to … investigate service and policy strategies for the city zone of the commuter rail network to connect residents to more frequent and affordable regional rail service, and potentially reduce crowding on nearby subway lines,” a spokesman for the department said in a statement.

In particular, the de Blasio administration has floated the idea of running trains more frequently between Atlantic Terminal and Jamaica Station so Queens commuters could then transfer to a number of subway lines at the Brooklyn hub.

The agency and the Economic Development Corp. are jointly spending around $787,000 on the study, which began in January and will end in October.

The City really seems to like AECOM. First they hired them for Liz Crowley's dopey light rail proposal, now this.

The commuter lines will not take Metrocards and the people who ride commuter rail lines won't stand for more crowding.

Waste. Of. Time. And. Money.

New contractor for belated bridge project

From the Queens Chronicle:

A new contractor has been selected to pick up where the old one left off at Metropolitan Avenue and Fresh Pond Road on the Middle Village-Ridgewood line.

Almost three months after the city’s contract with Mugrose Construction to replace the bridge deck below the intersection defaulted, the Department of Transportation announced Monday that New Jersey-based Beaver Concrete Construction has been tapped to finish the long-delayed project.

“In business since 1946 and a member of the General Contractors Association of New York, Beaver Concrete Construction has completed several bridge rehabilitation projects for the DOT, including repairs to the Trans-Manhattan Expressway Connector Ramp in Manhattan,” the agency said in a press release. “It is also currently under contract for a multi-bridge component rehabilitation project for bridges in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.”

Looks like work may have started:

Neglected Kew Gardens bridge needs some quick help

From the NY Times:

The bridge over the railroad tracks is Queens’s rickety answer to the store-packed Ponte Vecchio in Florence. It doubles as the hub of the bedroom community, with restaurants and stores on either side of the crossing on Lefferts Boulevard. But it is also a crumbling mess, in dire need of drastic repairs, according to the agency that owns it, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. To the dismay of the tight-knit neighborhood, the M.T.A. says that the best way to fix it is to tear the bridge down as well as the shops.

Now, the community is scrambling to find other answers before 2020, when the leases of all the business on the bridge expire. The M.T.A. said it will not permit the leases to be renewed while it makes plans for the bridge.

One suggestion from the neighborhood has been to stave off demolition by building a new bridge underneath the existing span to prop it up. The agency has offered a glimmer of hope, saying it would consider other options for the dilapidated bridge if a study were produced outlining the feasibility of alternatives. But the M.T.A. has said it is unable to pay for such a study, which it estimates would cost $1 million. State and local lawmakers who represent the area have said they will push to fund the study.

Contractor defaults on Fresh Pond bridge replacement project

From QNS:

For residents of Ridgewood and Middle Village, the reconstruction of a railroad bridge in a high-traffic area has caused headaches for commuters after repeated delays to the project, and things just got worse.

On Friday, a Department of Transportation spokesperson confirmed to QNS that its contract with Mugrose Construction to rebuild the Metropolitan Avenue and Fresh Pond Road bridge over the Montauk line of the Long Island Rail Road has defaulted. The project that was once projected to have its first phase completed by January 2018 has now been completely stalled.

The DOT cited delays that were beyond its control, and is now working closely with the bonding company to get the project completed as quickly as possible, the spokesperson said.

Construction contracts typically involve a contract surety bond to protect the owner of the property (DOT, in this case) from the risks associated with construction projects. The bonding company assumes that burden, and in the event of a defaulted contract their options are to re-bid the job for completion, bring in a replacement contractor, provide financial or technical assistance to the existing contractor or pay the penal sum of the bond.

Therefore, a defaulted contract doesn’t necessarily mean the contractor has been ousted, but the DOT offered no further details.