Community News
Elevating Astoria
BY ANGELA MATUA
Astoria residents and
elected officials have
grown frustrated with
the amount of train sta-tion
closures in their neighborhood due
to MTA construction. But after decades
of calling for elevators at the Astoria
Boulevard station, the agency may be
closer to fulfilling Astoria’s wishes.
The MTA presented their plan to in-stall
four elevators at the Astoria Boule-vard
N/W station at a Community Board
1 Transportation Committee meeting on
April 11, according to District Manager
Florence Koulouris.
Currently, the agency is making re-pairs
to two station — 30th Avenue
and 36th Avenue — which has left the
stations closed and local businesses
struggling because of a decrease in
foot traffic. In July, the MTA will begin
similar work on the Broadway and 39th
Avenue stations.
In February, elected officials and
Astoria residents rallied in front of the
Ditmars Boulevard train station, which
is undergoing a 14-month, $22 million
renovation as of April. They argued that
most of the repairs made at these sta-tions
were cosmetic and called on the
MTA to install necessary upgrades like
elevators.
“I’ve been in office for well over a
decade,” said state Senator Michael
Gianaris at the rally. “I’ve been hearing
about the Astoria Boulevard elevator
ever since. It’s funny that we’ve been
hearing promises about that elevator
for years and years and years and yet
they are doing this while they’re still
promising that.”
According to Koulouris, the MTA has
been speaking about adding elevators to
the Astoria Boulevard station since the
late 1970s. She added that the dates
provided by the MTA are not “set in stone.”
The MTA announced that it will not
start work on the elevators until the
four projects at the 30th Avenue, 36th
Avenue, 39th Avenue and Broadway
stations are complete. While two of
the projects are wrapping up, the 39th
Avenue and Broadway station upgrades
will be finished in January 2019.
On April 17, the MTA announced
that it would construct two street-to-mezzanine
elevators and two mezzanine-to-
platform elevators. The installation of
the street elevators will require that the
agency demolish and reconstruct the
entire station mezzanine, which will also
be raised to reduce strikes by trucks
driving underneath.
According to Koulouris, the MTA said
that the project will go out to bid on or
around March 15, 2019, and will be
awarded at or around June 29, 2019.
The construction will take approximately
29 months and the station will be par-tially
closed for the majority of this time
but will be fully closed for nine months
starting in February 2019, the MTA
announced.
“I’ve made accessibility one of my top
priorities since the moment I arrived at
New York City Transit and am thrilled
that we’re bringing elevators to this
critical intermodal hub that connects
to LaGuardia Airport,” MTA President
22 MAY 2018 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
Andy Byford said. “We are continuing to
spend billions of dollars on accessibility
throughout the entire subway system.
The systemwide study that’s underway
now, combined with future funding in
the MTA capital plan, will provide the
path forward to even more accessibility
improvements.”
The project will be “substantially” com-pleted
by December 2020 but adding
elevators will be only part of a larger
project. The MTA will also raise the plat-form,
close the gap between the platform,
widen the mezzanine and replace the
stairs, roof, lampposts, signs and gates.
The MTA also announced at the
meeting that they will work with the
Department of Transportation on traf-fic
modifications during the construc-tion
since the station is near the Grand
Central Parkway and Triborough Bridge,
Koulouris said.
Councilman Costa Constantinides,
who attended the February rally, called
the announcement “bittersweet” and
said the accessibility updates “are a
long time coming.”
“Our community has spent years
advocating for elevators at the station
to improve accessibility for people with
disabilities, parents with strollers, and
seniors,” he said. “However, our com-munity’s
experience with the MTA’s 30th
Avenue Station closure has left us with
many burdens, concerns and unanswered
questions. While closing the station will
bring some negative effects to our neigh-borhood
during construction including
longer commute times and more crowded
stations, the added accessibility features
will bring essential long-term infrastructure
improvements to the station. I will continue
to hold the authority accountable on this
and other similar projects.”
According to TransitCenter, a foun-dation
that advocates for urban mobil-ity,
only 23 percent of the subway’s
472 stations are accessible under the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
requirements. On average, there are
25 elevator outages throughout the
system per day.
By TransitCenter’s estimates, it will
take 70 years for the MTA to become
fully ADA accessible if it continues its
construction pace. The 2015-19 Capital
Program includes $427 million to re-place
42 elevators and 32 escalators
and funding to make an additional 19
stations accessible.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons
/www.qns.com
