Representatives from New York City Transit met with the Civic Council at the January Trustees Meeting to discuss local projects that will have a big impact in our community: the Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation Project and the renovation of the Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street station.
The Long and Winding F and G Trains
The project to improve the Culver Viaduct will affect subway service in the area for the next 18 months.
The structure, built in the 1930s, allows F and G trains to cross high over the Gowanus Canal, with stops at Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street and Smith-Ninth Streets. After decades of deterioration, the viaduct will be rebuilt and tracks, signals, and switches renewed. The project, according to Ally Bechtel of the agency’s Operations Planning Unit, will include station rehabilitation at Smith-Ninth and restoration of the Fourth Avenue station.
Reconstruction will be handled in four phases, which for subway riders will mean four changes in service:
- Now through late May: no Manhattan-bound F or Queens-bound G service from the 15th Street-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Parkway stations, and no Manhattan-bound F at Smith-Ninth Street (the G still stops there).
- Late May through March 2012: Smith-Ninth closed completely.
- November 2011 through March 2012: no Coney Island- or Church Avenue-bound F and G service stopping at 15th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway.
- March through September 2012: no Coney Island-bound trains at Smith-Ninth (the G still stops there).
The project at Fourth Avenue will include a restored canopy, platform, and windows on the overpass (98 windows will be opened up to views along Fourth), and the understructure of the overpass will be painted. Andrew Inglesby, NYC Transit assistant director for government and community relations, added that billboards hanging from the historic arch spanning the avenue have already been removed.
For more information on the project, visit the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s website here and here. To plan your trip, visit the MTA website.
(Side note: Councilmember Brad Lander has posted a petition on his website that asks New York City Transit to extend the route of the B68 bus to the Seventh Avenue-Ninth Street station while northbound subway service on the F and G lines is suspended for the project. The bus stops at both 15th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway. The petition is available at bradlander.com/sign-a-petition-for-better-transit-alternatives-during-fg-station-closures.)
Opening Up the East Side
Inglesby also announced that his agency is moving ahead with plans to open up the east side of the Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street station as a passenger entrance with retail concessions.
The Civic Council has long advocated this idea to increase pedestrian safety — commuters from the east side of Fourth will no longer have to cross the busy avenue — as well as create a more inviting streetscape and encourage retail opportunities for the MTA.
The new eastern entrance, said Inglesby, will likely feature low turnstiles and up to three reopened concession areas. (The agency also plans on improving the retail spaces in the west-side entrance.) Assemblymember Joan Millman has already pledged $800,000 toward the project; New York City Transit is waiting to confirm it has the additional $2 million needed before construction can begin.
(Reminder: The Civic Council’s Trustees Meetings are open to the public. See our online calendar for more information on these monthly meetings.)
from the January 2011 Civic News