Heads up while walking and driving under the 7 el tracks

photo by Jose Martinez/The City

THE CITY

Even after large pieces of debris plunged from the 7 train’s elevated structure down onto the street several times this year, the MTA isn’t ready to put up safety nets.

Queens Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer requested netting under the tracks above Roosevelt Avenue following a series of high-profile spills.

But “netting would impede access, close-up inspection, and assessment of corrosion or defects on the structure and cause extensive street level traffic disruption to install and secure,” New York City Transit Authority President Andy Byford wrote in a recent letter to Van Bramer obtained by THE CITY.

Byford wrote that New York City Transit is “exploring engineering designs and preliminary costs” before making a “final determination” on the netting.

Van Bramer in March had asked for the MTA to install netting after debris from the elevated tracks repeatedly plunged onto Roosevelt Avenue. In February, a piece of wood pierced the windshield of a passing for-hire vehicle, prompting a pledge from the MTA to inspect “every inch of elevated tracks in the city.”

“Until the MTA is 100 percent certain that nothing is going to fall from those elevated tracks and potentially kill someone, we’ve got to do something to protect the people underneath,” Van Bramer told THE CITY on Wednesday.

Some Queens residents said they take extra care when traveling bustling Roosevelt Avenue.

“I just walk quickly when I’m under the tracks,” said Amelia Carrillo, 73. “It’s not like I’m going to walk around with a hardhat on.”

“It’s an old structure,” said Lucas Reyes, 58, as he walked beneath the elevated tracks at 61st Street-Woodside stop. “You don’t want anything falling on your head.”

Byford noted that New York City Transit has nearly completed emergency engineering and maintenance inspections along the No. 7 line’s elevated structure, with crews removing loose materials and spotting steel repair needs.

Two more “blitz inspections” are underway — to replace any missing track baskets that are supposed to keep loose parts from falling on to the street and to make sure track ties are secure.

“I’ve had people tell me they avoid that area now,” Van Bramer said. “I’ve had constituents say, ‘I try not to drive under there, I try not to walk under there.’”

More heavy metal debris is falling from elevated tracks, this time in Sunnyside and Richmond Hill

CBS NY

 In what’s become an alarmingly commonplace occurrence of late, a small piece of rusty metal plunged from the elevated 7 train track and crashed into a car in Queens on Friday.

Officials say the hunk of metal dropped onto the trunk of a car on Queens Boulevard and Skillman Avenue in Sunnyside, causing a dent.
The man whose car it hit was surprised to see how much damage the metal inflicted. The incident comes after two separate incidents in the past month where debris fell from the 7 train tracks in Woodside.
No one was hurt, but cars were damaged every time debris fell.
“This is outrageous! More rusty metal debris falling from the 7 train, this time in LIC. Look at that dent— a person would have died!” Tweeted Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer. “I sent a letter to [the MTA] last week demanding an expeditious inspection of the 7 train structure. What is the hold up?!”

NBC 4 NY

MTA workers were seen inspecting a section of tracks Monday afternoon as they looked into whether metal that apparently crashed into a car's roof in Queens was debris from elevated subway tracks.

The alleged incident occurred Monday when a woman behind the wheel heard a thump, pulled over, got out, looked up and apparently found damage on the roof of her car.

The woman believes it was a piece of metal that fell from the elevated tracks along Liberty Avenue and 115th in Richmond Hill.

She says the debris rained down as a train passed above.

However, the MTA says it looked into Monday’s incident but did not find “anything abnormal at the scene.”

In a statement, the MTA said: “We obviously take any report like this seriously and sent a team to investigate. We didn’t find anything abnormal at the scene – there was no debris on the ground, the track was inspected from both sides and all components were found to be secure. Our systemwide inspection of all elevated track structures continues.”

 

Falling debris from elevated tracks has damaged at least three cars in the last month, including a car impaled by a wooden beam. MTA president Andy Byford said the agency is looking to other cities, including Chicago, for help on maintenance tips for elevated tracks.

"We are reaching out to sister agencies — a classic, obvious example being Chicago because they operate a lot of overhead structures — to see if there is anything that they do additional to what we do," Byford said.

Wait, our transit system needs to be advised from other city's transit authorities to basically clean up after themselves? Too bad Felix Unger is a fictional character and deceased, because he would have been an excellent consultant for the MTA.

More dangerous crap is falling from the elevated tracks again in Woodside

NY Post


A piece of debris from the elevated 7-train tracks crashed down onto a vehicle for the second time in two weeks Wednesday, prompting a Queens lawmaker to blast the MTA for the “public safety threat.”

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer pointed out the incident on Twitter, firing off a photo of the roughly one-pound, 10-inch wide metal piece of debris and a cracked car windshield on Roosevelt Avenue — just blocks away from where a similar incident occurred last month.

“What the hell is going on here?! For the second time in two weeks a piece of debris has come crashing down on a vehicle Below tracks on Roosevelt Ave., this time at 62nd street,” Van Bramer tweeted.

“The car was occupied and moving,” the pol tweeted. “No one injured but someone is going to get killed here @MTA!”


About a dozen MTA workers using a cherry picker were spotted Wednesday afternoon cutting out chunks of rusted metal from the underside of the main stairwell at the entrance to the Woodside/61st St. Station, where local merchant Esmat Elmarakei, 57, the owner of T-Shirts & More on Roosevelt Avenue, said garbage and debris routinely falls from the tracks.

“It hit the back of my husband’s car and broke his back window a few years ago,” Elmarakei said.

Last month wood from the elevated train tracks crashed into the windshield of a black Chevy Tahoe underneath the tracks on Roosevelt Avenue near the Woodside/61st St. Station.

After that incident, MTA officials promised to inspect all of the city’s elevated train tracks.

“We will begin to inspect the rest of the elevated lines that run through Queens, The Bronx, and Brooklyn to…make sure some anomaly like this doesn’t exist anymore,” the MTA’s Chief Safety Office Patrick Warren told reporters.

 Debris falling in the same area during a busy weekday afternoon ceases to become an anomaly. The MTA should focus their damage control efforts on clearing out their garbage and improving transit service instead of spinning b.s. to the media.

Jimmy really conveys sadness in that picture.