Congestion pricing forgot to fix this

 

 

NY Daily News

The MTA’s plan to fix the ailing East New York Bus Depot, which has been without a functioning fire sprinkler system for nearly three years, has been pushed back again, the Daily News has learned — a delay that could cost the agency $5 million in overtime.

As previously reported by The News, the MTA has been struggling to fix a 2,000 foot underground pipe at the facility since 2021, when the line responsible for feeding the sprinkler system from the city main failed to hold pressure.

Since then, countless attempts to patch the pipe and plug the leaks have failed, though repair crews have flooded the facility’s boiler room and uncovered asbestos piping beneath a storeroom in the process.

A plan to replace 2,000 feet of leaky subterranean piping with an above-ground loop, first reported by The News, had initially been scheduled for completion in August 2026.

But sources with knowledge of the facility said this week that that date has now been pushed back to late June 2027, nearly an 11-month delay.

A contract for the work, which had been due to be awarded this month, has not yet been solicited — the award is now scheduled for June of this year.

“This project will be awarded and commenced in 2025, as anticipated,” MTA spokesperson Kayla Shults said in response to questions about the reason for the delay. “We look forward to delivering upgrades to this nearly century-old depot,” she added.

The broken subterranean pipe is designed to provide pressurized water to the depot’s thousands of sprinkler heads in the event of a fire. As previously reported by The News, the pipe has repeatedly burst and failed pressure tests.

The repair project — which also includes the replacement of 3,000 sprinkler heads on the depot’s first floor — is expected to cost the MTA more than $4.5 million to complete.

Meanwhile, the transit agency is expected to continue to pay dozens of transit workers overtime to patrol the sweeping facility as a so-called “fire watch,” looking for fire 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

$100M needed for huge streetcar depots

From Crains:

Missing from maps of a proposed streetcar route along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront is where the de Blasio administration would locate the transit line's maintenance yard, which would likely be one or more facilities totaling several acres. The yard or yards would be needed to store and service the 47-car fleet.

The Brooklyn Queens Connector is a 16-mile streetcar line that would run from Astoria, Queens, to Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Currently, the de Blasio administration is conducting a wide-ranging study that will include recommendations on the streetcar's ideal route, along with how large the maintenance yard or yards would be and where they could be located.

Here in New York, Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector, a nonprofit that has promoted plans for a streetcar that were eventually adopted by the de Blasio administration, has suggested building two maintenance facilities at a total cost of $100 million. The group believes the yard or yards would require less than five acres.

Flushing West bus terminal talk

From the Queens Courier:

The city plans to add mandatory affordable housing to all new developments and to consider adding a new bus terminal in a section of Flushing targeted for a major zoning initiative.

In the latest step to engage residents and local businesses as stakeholders in the rezoning process, the Department of City Planning presented accumulated feedback from previous meetings last week in the Flushing branch of the Queens Library.

The affordable housing provision is part of a mandatory inclusionary housing initiative in the general land use framework. It will seek to reach a broader range of income levels than previous programs and to increase the ratio of affordable units to those available at market rate.

One of the options currently proposed would set aside 25 percent of housing floor area for tenants making 60 percent of the area’s median income, or $46,620 for a family of three.

The new bus terminal was proposed as a way of diverting bus congestion away from the most heavily used streets in downtown Flushing. This could be located near the northern or southern edges of the rezoning area.

K2 causing problems in Jamaica

From WPIX:

Anthony Mitchell, a security guard at the 165th Street Bus Terminal in Jamaica, Queens, told PIX11 he’s been watching the people collapse there since at least January.

“One young man went into convulsions and shot some white stuff out of his mouth,” Mitchell recounted to PIX11 Investigates this week. “And then another young man went into convulsions and started shaking.”

The managers of the bus terminal—a major hub for travelers into Jamaica—have been getting complaints from store-owners and bus drivers at the site for months.

Young men are loitering outside shops and smoking synthetic drugs, commonly called K2 or Spice. They can buy a package—marketed as potpourri—for as little as $5.00 a clip.

The stuff looks a little like marijuana—but there’s nothing organic about it.

It’s sprayed with chemicals, often manufactured in China, that create a high.

New bus depot needed in Jamaica

From the Times Ledger:

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority bought this year several properties adjacent to the South Jamaica bus depot with a plan to expand the facility in order to alleviate the lack of bus parking space.

City Councilman I. Daneek Miller (D-St. Albans) testified last Thursday before the state Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions regarding the MTA’s 2015-19 capital plan hearing to request the new Jamaica bus depot is built.

“We require an expanded depot with additional bus counts that would be able to handle additional service needs,” the councilman said. “I trust it will be in the budget,” he added, referring to the MTA’s four-year capital project.

Miller said the land purchased will allow the facility to expand onto Merrick Boulevard.

The MTA paid more than $6.5 million to acquire four properties alongside Merrick Boulevard just south of York College and Tuskegee Airmen Way. The negotiation included a nearby fifth property. In total, the MTA added to its portfolio 50,000 square feet.

“This depot, where major repairs are done, is vital to the effective use of bus service for southeast Queens riders,” he said. That’s why, added Miller, “it must remain the highest priority.”

The Jamaica bus depot was built in 1940 and is one of the oldest in the city. It houses approximately 200 buses that cover a total of nine southeast Queens routes. The depot grew small for all the operations running from South Jamaica, and during nights and weekends a lot of the buses are parked alongside Merrick Boulevard, creating a nuisance for neighbors.

MTA looking to expand Jamaica depot

From the Times Ledger:

The MTA recently bought up a handful of properties adjacent to the South Jamaica bus depot, which it has been hoping to expand for years, but until the agency can come up with the needed capital funds, construction plans will sit as idle as the buses parked along Merrick Boulevard.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority paid $6.6 million earlier this month to the Hollywood, Fla.-based Rejtx LLC for four properties fronting Merrick Boulevard on the block just south of York College and Tuskegee Airmen Way as well as a fifth property at the block’s northwest corner.

The acquisition of the additional 50,000 square feet brings the MTA’s footprint on the block to about 221,000 square feet and represents a long-awaited milestone in the push to redevelop the aging facility.

Coverage of MTA depot press conference

Newtown Pentacle has a comprehensive recap.

Electeds move to block Maspeth depot

Maspeth Doesn't Need Another Depot!

***MEDIA ALERT***
CITY & MTA IN A RUSH TO DUMP DEPOT IN MASPETH

Council Members Van Bramer, Crowley, Assemblywoman Markey and Local Elected Officials unite with Concerned Residents to Speak out against the Proposed Location

On Friday, March 4th Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, Council Member Elizabeth Crowley and Assemblywoman Marge Markey will stand with local elected officials and concerned residents to speak out against the city and MTA’s proposed Bus Depot site in Maspeth. The proposed site on 49th Street and Galasso Place would be the third MTA depot in an area that is already saturated with commercial traffic. The rush job in selecting Maspeth as a potential site has raised concerns about the secretive process that gave no notice to the community or to local elected officials. Council Members Van Bramer and Crowley and Assemblywoman Markey are going to unite with local elected officials and residents to protest against the proposed location.

WHO: City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer; City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley;
Assemblywoman Marge Markey; Local Elected Officials; and concerned residents.

WHAT: Protest City & MTA’s rush job to dump another bus depot in Maspeth
WHEN: Friday, March 4th 2:30PM
WHERE: Corner of 49th Street and Galasso Place

Where are the local electeds on this one?

From the Forum West:

A fight by residents in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to push the MTA out of the community could have a negative outcome for Maspeth.

The Brooklyn Paper reported last week that political rivals Councilman Steve Levin (D- Greenpoint) and Greenpoint district leader Lincoln Restler were both pressuring the MTA to abandon its Access-a-Ride depot at 65 Commercial Street. In 2005, the city agreed to build parkland at the site, but in the following six years, the MTA has yet to obtain a new property to store Access-a-Ride vehicles.

Now, the MTA is considering a site in Maspeth to relocate the Acess-a-Ride depot. According to MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan, the proposed site is on the east side of 49th Street, between 56th Road and Galasso Place.

“We’re working with the Mayor’s Office, which has agreed to make the site ready for use as a depot,” Donovan said in an e-mail.

For a community that already feels overburdened by commercial traffic, the proposed site is worrisome.

Maspeth, like Greenpoint, has been fighting for more public parkland. Residents have fought an ongoing battle to convert the former St. Saviour’s property into a park. The community also deals with constant traffic congestion.

The Cross Harbor Freight Program could create more truck traffic in that area if the proposal goes through, and the expansion of Waste Management’s Review Avenue site will bring more garbage trucks through the neighborhood. The MTA also already has an Access-a-Ride depot on Maurice Avenue.

“As far as I’m concerned, if Brooklyn wants to create a park at Access-a-Ride’s present location, then an alternate site should be found in Brooklyn,” Daraio said.

Agreed. Brooklyn dumping on Queens. You gotta love it.

Unfortunately, the local electeds were not quoted in this article. Is anyone surprised? Well, this will be a very expensive relocation considering that the site requires remediation before anything can be put there. That's why it's been vacant for years.

Terrorists filming bus depot?

From the NY Post:

Terror fears have struck a Brooklyn bus depot after reports that several suspicious people videotaped its highly-flammable natural gas tanks.

"If those were hit, the whole neighborhood would blow up," said Tommy McNally, a Transport Workers Union representative who responded to the reports.

Three incidents of mysterious filming were reported on Saturday, Sunday and Monday at the Jackie Gleason bus depot in Sunset Park. Police say they are investigating.

Those who spotted the individuals described them as "Middle Eastern’’ looking, and said they paid particular attention to the depot’s compressed natural gas tanks, near its front gate.

Only one guard is usually on duty at the depot, said sources.

Early Saturday, a man dressed in a business suit walked by the depot with a video camera, transit sourcessaid.

On Sunday morning, two men and a woman allegedly parked their gray BMW with Pennsylvania plates in front of the depot, and filmed it with a large video camera.

The mysterious videographers waited for the guard to take a bathroom break before shooting their footage, said the sources.

Then on Monday, another man was spotted filming buses along their routes in the neighborhood.