Woodside forecast calls for metal

QNS


Things keep falling apart — and off of — the elevated 7 line in Woodside, with the latest incident of plunging debris coming in the form of a steel chunk that dropped near the 52nd Street station this week.

On Wednesday, Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer tweeted a photo of a large piece of steel that fell to the sidewalk between 51st and 52nd Streets in Woodside.

Now the MTA tells QNS they plan to extend netting that currently only exists around the 61st Street – Woodside Station to protect motorists and pedestrians from debris commonly known to fall by those living and working along Roosevelt Avenue.

“The object that fell reflects no structural risk but is obviously a serious matter. This area was re-inspected today to ensure that there are no other loose pieces there,” an MTA spokesman said. “This has the full attention of President Byford who had already expedited the netting process by ordering a systemwide cost and priority analysis while the four-location pilot is underway. A comprehensive inspection in March found no issues.”

Nothing but nets for Astoria's elevated train tracks

Astoria Patch

  As the MTA moves to install protective netting under stretches of the elevated subway tracks that run through Queens, elected officials are calling for the transit authority to put nets under the entire N/W line in Astoria.


The MTA plans to install netting under the N/W tracks at the Queensboro Plaza and 39th Avenue stations, which City Council Member Costa Constantinides says leaves two miles of track in Astoria still exposed.

The MTA's plan excludes four N/W subway stations along 31st Street in Astoria: 36th Avenue, Broadway, 30th Avenue, Astoria Boulevard and Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard.

"The MTA can do right by Astoria residents by installing protective netting under the entirety of this line — not just a few stations," Constantinides, who represents Astoria, said in a statement. "Given the aging infrastructure of this line and the years of work still ahead to fix it, this is a no-brainer."

More heavy metal thunder raining from the Roosevelt Ave. elevated tracks

NY Daily News



It’s raining rusty metal in Queens.

A woman walking beneath the No. 7 subway tracks Monday was nearly struck by a falling hunk of rusty metal, the fifth reported incident of flying debris along the 104-year-old elevated structure this year.

Erin Koster, 37, was crossing Roosevelt Ave. at 53rd St. at around 4:30 p.m. when she said the piece of metal fell in front of her. Kostner said the debris weighed about a pound, enough to cause serious injury.

The Woodside resident said she’s been aware of the ongoing issue on the line.

“We don’t drive under the train anymore at all in the car, because why would you,” said Koster. “But if you live in this neighborhood, you have to walk under the train tracks.”

The issues along the No. 7 line became well known in February when a falling beam nearly impaled an Uber driver on Roosevelt Ave. near 65th St. Two weeks later, a hunk of rusty metal cracked the windshield of a car parked beneath the tracks near 62nd St.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials have repeatedly assured residents that it’s perfectly safe beneath the tracks, and on Tuesday said they were looking into putting up netting to catch any falling debris.

Agency spokesman Shams Tarek said Tuesday’s falling debris appears to have “broken clean” without any sign of slow deterioration or stress to the structure.

 Broken clean. Looks like the MTA is becoming more adept at propaganda than at maintenance.

Lookie here, an update from THE CITY:

 The MTA said Tuesday it will install protective netting beneath “limited” sections of elevated train tracks throughout the city — including along the No. 7 line, where debris has repeatedly plunged onto Queens’ Roosevelt Avenue.

The agency’s move follows the latest spills — both near the 52nd Street stop in Woodside on Monday and Tuesday.

“It’s otherworldly that we have so many people in Woodside, Queens, when they walk along Roosevelt Avenue are looking up and saying, ‘Am I next? Is something going to happen to me here?’” said Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer. “They’ve got to fix this.”

Van Bramer has been pressing the MTA to install netting beneath the 7 tracks in the wake of several heavy items plummeting from the elevated structures.

 The problems underneath the line started in February, when a piece of wood spiked the windshield of a passing for-hire vehicle. That scare prompted the MTA to pledge an inspection of “every inch of elevated tracks in the city.”

 But until this week, the MTA had been noncommittal about installing netting.

THE CITY last month reported that New York City Transit President Andy Byford objected to  Van Bramer’s proposal, warning in a letter to the Council member that 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.”

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Byford said the No. 7’s elevated structure “has the attention of the highest levels of MTA leadership,” and that the authority is taking the netting on a test run.

 
 

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 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.

 

The new Astoria stations are spiffy

Track repair is disrupting Woodside

From Sunnyside Post:

Enraged Woodside residents, business owners, and community leaders are demanding that the MTA stop wreaking havoc on the neighborhood—once again—as the agency snarls Roosevelt Avenue and surrounding streets with its work along the 7 line.

The MTA has been working to repair the express and local tracks at the 61st Street station since Jan. 5, but the multiple cranes clogging up traffic and sudden no-parking regulations for hours on end have put a dent on small businesses and establishments along the avenue.

“We need safe, reliable transit,” said Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Woodside) outside Donavan’s Pub at the corner of 58th Street and Roosevelt Avenue. “But you can’t destroy a neighborhood in the process of saving a train line.”

Trackside hotel coming to Astoria

From DNA Info:

A developer is planning to build a nine-story hotel with 52 rooms on 31st Street, just steps from the 30th Avenue subway station, city records show.

Anton Developers filed plans with the Department of Buildings Monday to construct the 95-foot-high hotel at 30-17 31st St., adjacent to the elevated N/W train tracks, on a lot that's currently home to a two-story house with a driveway and garage.

The hotel would include space for medical offices on its first and second floors, as well as an exercise room in the basement, according to the plans.

Continued overdevelopment along 7 train line is probably a bad idea

From Brick Underground:

Anyone who has passed through Queensboro Plaza lately won't be surprised to hear that a development boom is afoot in this part of Queens. The area surrounding the elevated train station in Long Island City is a sea of cranes and residential high-rises, which have been sprouting up ever since a 2001 rezoning of the neighborhood.

And lately, developers have been pushing farther along the 7 train corridor into Queens, adding towers to the skylines of areas like Jackson Heights and Flushing. Last year, a report from Ariel Property Advisors predicted that growth would continue, eventually even mirroring Brooklyn's L train corridor in the changes to come, based on the area's (relative) affordability, transit and increasingly hip reputation. Even Anthony Bourdain, bad boy celebrity chef meets CNN anchor, recently featured Queens in an episode of his travel show, Parts Unknown.

The word is definitely already out in northwest Queens, home to Long Island City, Astoria, Sunnyside and Woodside. According to the most recent Douglas Elliman market reports, median rents have actually exceeded those of Brooklyn and the number of new leases grew by over 50 percent from last year.

But some Queens locals say that they're concerned about population growth along the 7 line, which isn't really free from the issues ailing the rest of NYC's subway network. (In fact, Brick previously covered how weekend subway shutdowns of the 7 hurt Queens neighborhoods.) A development boom could end up exacerbating overcrowding and delays that are already plaguing the train, these residents say, making a bad situation worse.

7 train turns 100 today

From LIC Post:

To commemorate the first trip from Grand Central Station in to Queens on April 21, 1917, Access Queens and the New York Transit Museum will hold a commemoration with several speakers, followed by a ride on the 7 train from Grand Central to Corona, on Friday afternoon.

The commemoration ceremony will kick off at 1 p.m. and there will be several speakers who will talk about the impact the train has had on the city and what’s needed in the future. The ceremony will take place on the Flushing-Bound Platform on the lower level at Grand Central.

The centennial ride will leave Grand Central around 2 p.m., which is the exact time that the first 7 train to go in to Queens left Grand Central 100 years ago.

Hopefully service doesn't get suspended as it did earlier this week. That would be pretty embarrassing.

Under-el sitting areas opened

From DNA Info:

There's a new place to sit in the neighborhood, as the second of two public plazas under the elevated 7 train line is now open.

Officials cut the ribbon Friday on Lowery Plaza under the 40th Street Station in Sunnyside, which has been made over into a public gathering place with tables, chairs and plants, according to the Sunnyside Shine Business Improvement District.

The BID is managing the new site as part of the Department of Transportation's NYC Plaza Program, along with Bliss Plaza, which opened under the 46th Street Station in July.

I don't know who would want to sit underneath an elevated train with traffic whizzing by on both sides of them, but whatever floats their boats...

New artwork along 7 line

From Sunnyside Post:

The rooftop sign above Sunnyside Community Services is in for a makeover.

The sign, which is currently covered by graffiti, will be replaced with a 7-color mural that will feature a steam engine train and the word Sunnyside in large letters.

The new mural will help revitalize the rooftop at SCS and will be visible to 7 train riders going between the 33rd and 40th Street stations.

The mural has been designed by Mark Salinas, a local artist, who did the Rise N Shine painting on the corner of 42nd Street and 48th Avenue last year.

Salinas formed an organization last year, called 7Train Murals, that is dedicated to beautifying the neighborhoods along the 7 train line in Queens.

Come hang out under the 7 train!

From the Sunnyside Post:

The areas located under the 40th Street and 46th Street subway stations—once known for pigeons, dirty newspaper stands and food vendors – are in for a makeover.

Sunnyside Shines, through a program with the Department of Transportation, will be converting these areas into plazas — through the NYC Plaza Program.

The program provides the BID with the ability to design a new space under the two stations in consultation with the community.

The designs can incorporate features such as planters, bike racks, benches and moveable tables and chairs. The plazas are also likely to be transformed into public gathering spaces.

Elevated trains to get quieter?

From PIX 11:

The MTA says it’s installing temporary measures at near Ditmars, where trains release the air brakes at the last stop on the line. A more permanent fix (including barriers) will be built in 2015 during a redesign project.

Also, crews will check track conditions outside PS 85 in Queens near 24th Avenue. The school has worked with elected leaders, including State Senator Mike Gianaris, to request some noise mitigation along the elevated tracks in front of the school.

Work along the J line near the Myrtle stop includes the installation of special track on the weekends in April. Jamaica Center-bound trains run express from Marcy Avenue to Broadway Junction until 10 p.m. Sundays. Trains stop at Myrtle Avenue.

Post-apocalyptic scene beneath the J train

Hi QC,

Talk about an eyesore (and maybe a lung sore)!

Have you seen what is left of a food factory distributor that burned about 2 years ago.

The burned out hulk remains untouched it seems since the fire. If you are on the Crescent Street platform of the J train you are right above it.

Anybody know what is planned for this? Why does the community have to see this and possibly be exposed to who knows what when the wind blows? When it rains, what toxins are leached and where?

Thanks for your coverage of local news.

Joe L

Joe, I don't know what the answer is. Usually, the FDNY/DOB orders the building to be demolished. I'm not sure why this one was left in this condition for so long. - QC

Anti-pigeon measures seem to be working

From DNA Info:

Commuters at a subway station in Queens are now being greeted with more than just the sounds of a rumbling train.

The MTA is using recordings of "predatory bird calls," at the 52nd Street station in Woodside, one tactic in a multi-faceted $250,000 effort to keep pigeons from roosting — and pooping — there.

The feature was installed at the station earlier this month, an MTA spokeswoman said and the Sunnyside Post first reported.

The squawking, shrieking and chirping sounds are meant to mimic birds of prey, like a hawk, and are played randomly through small speakers underneath the station.

Will it actually happen this time?

From the Queens Courier:

Sunnyside and Woodside residents and commuters will soon be able to walk under the No. 7 train without having to dodge pigeon poop.

After hearing concerns from residents, Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer announced he has allocated $250,000 in funding to install “state-of-the-art pigeon mitigation systems” along the No. 7 line at 46th Street-Bliss in Sunnyside, 52nd Street-Lincoln Avenue in Woodside and 61st Street-Woodside.

“Pigeon poop isn’t a joke,” said Van Bramer. “It is something that is terribly disgusting. It makes our neighborhood look unattractive and it is also a health hazard.”

The new alleviation systems, which will take three months to be fully installed, will include the addition of thin wiring and netting in nearby areas to the subway entrances, and installment of nylon spikes and angled edges on the ledges. New ultrasonic devices will also be installed releasing hawks’ and other predatory birds’ sounds that keep pigeons away but are silent to humans.

Hey, did anyone else catch that this was already announced last year?

Who should be liable for broken sidewalk?

From CBS New York:

A Brooklyn business owner has been forced by the city to cough up $30,000 to have his sidewalk repaired – but he says it is the city’s fault that the sidewalk is broken.

As CBS 2’s Janelle Burrell reported, Louis Gellman is the owner of the Hilna Tire Shop in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. His shop sits alongside the elevated subway tracks of the D Line.

“The vibrations now are so loud, it’s like a jackhammer — and it’s cracking up the sidewalk,” Gellman said.

As any other property owner in the city, Gellman is responsible for maintaining the sidewalk outside. And now, he said he has been asked to pay for damage he did not cause.

“Thirty thousand dollars to replace a sidewalk that I didn’t break,” he said.

Gellman showed CBS 2 pictures, which he said show city contractors parked on his sidewalk. He said their machinery, as well as broken pieces of rail that have fallen to the ground, and the sonic vibrations from the trains through the support poles all contributed to the $200,000 square-foot slab of concrete in front of the tire shop.

“The vibrations for the train is at 100 decibel points,” Gellman said.

$30,000 for a replacement sidewalk? Seems kind of steep.

A blast from Queens past

"There are 3 different Flushing Expresses in this presentation. A train, a bus, and a restaurant!"

Rockaway A train is back in business May 30th

From the NY Post:

‘A’ train service will roll back to the Rockaways on Thursday, May 30, Gov. Cuomo announced today.

Superstorm Sandy wiped out hundreds of feet of track and miles of signal, communications and power cables serving the Rockaways. The ‘A’ train now runs only as far as Howard Beach, where Rockaways-bound riders have to board buses to finish their trips.

After an “all-out” effort by MTA employees and contractors, 1,500 feet of track has been restored, and two stations that were completely flooded were rehabilitated.

The MTA has also installed two miles of corrugated marine steel along its Jamaica Bay right-of-way it hopes will protect the track against future storms.