We are now officially in L-train slowdown mode for the next 15-18 months.
On Friday evening, the MTA started its service reduction to repair the Sandy-damaged tubes between Manhattan and Brooklyn, ramping down L times to 20-minute waits starting at 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. during the week and around the clock on weekends. (Here's the MTA press release on it.)
The slowdown's debut on Friday received so-so to negative reviews, based on various published reports and social media accounts.
For many of the city's regular L riders — a group that numbers 400,000 on a normal day — the reality underground was a far cry from the governor's description of "service that would still work." In Union Square, crowds were penned in along barricades on the mezzanine level, in some cases waiting to board an open train that wouldn't arrive for close to an hour. Transit workers, stationed across the system in large numbers, practically begged customers to make use of the increased service on the M, G, and 7 lines, or the free transfers on the M14A/D and Williamsburg Link buses.
Those who did stay encountered extended waits not only inside stations, but on unmoving trains as well. The dwell times seemed especially bad at Union Square, where the MTA's interlocking system means that Brooklyn-bound service must wait for a passing train to arrive before switching over to the shared track, in order to avoid the construction area between 3rd Avenue and Bedford.
"It's worse than I thought," said Alfredo Fernando, a dish-washer at a restaurant near Union Square.
Transit reporter Vin Barone has his recap for amNYhere. As he notes, the MTA's biggest challenge might be happening as you read this: making sure there isn't any lingering construction left to disrupt this morning's commute.
“[We] are aware of how critically important it is to have that smooth transition so that at 5 a.m. we can start back in service,” said Ronnie Hakim, the MTA’s managing director, during a trip along the L line on Sunday. “We do this. We know how to do it. It’s a function of working out all the kinks.”
By Saturday, the L-train situation had mostly righted itself. Christopher Robbins at Gothamist explored one of the alternative methods touted by the MTA to get around — the M14 — on Saturday afternoon. "And while there were definitely more M14 buses, there is nothing to save them from getting stuck in the miserable traffic that clogs 14th Street. It took us 47 minutes to get from Grand Street on the Lower East Side to 8th Avenue and 14th Street."
Help may be on the way. In June, the city plans to convert 14th Street into a busway from Third Avenue to Ninth Avenue with very limited access to car traffic.
Look how many buses are trapped on 14th Street! Ugh.
Seeing it in person just makes me more 😡 that a few cranks in the West Village almost succeeded in dictating the policy response to the #LTrainSlowdown
Now to a few other observations related to the slowdown...
The MTA is stockpiling extra M14s on the east side of Avenue A between 11th Street and 13th Street ...
This means no parking/or standing along here for the foreseeable future... from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Friday, and all weekend long...
The MTA also has extra buses at the ready on the east side of Third Avenue between 12th Street and 14th Street...
This also means no parking on this side of the Avenue ...
Meanwhile, the SBS bus services starts in June... and more ticketing machines have been unveiled... on the north side of 14th Street between Second Avenue and Third Avenue...
... and the east side of Avenue A between Fifth Street and Sixth Street...
Anyone have any L-train stories to share from this past weekend?
Andy Byford, CEO of the New York City Transit Authority, attended CB3's Transportation, Public Safety, & Environment Committee meeting last night for an L-train update.
As transportation reporter Aaron Gordon noted at Gothamist:
Byford only attends higher profile events like town halls and dispatches underlings to small community board meetings. But he told the roughly three dozen residents of CB3, which encompasses the Lower East Side from 14th Street to the Brooklyn Bridge, that he came in person because “I owe it to the community to come out and explain to you as best I can what we know about what has changed and to go through what hasn't changed.”
On the safety front, Byford is convening an engineering team, which he promises will be independent not just of the MTA but of New York politics, to review the new plan and ensure it does not jeopardize anyone’s safety. But he has not yet determined who will be the independent reviewers or when their report — which he promises to publicly release — will be done.
At the same time, his team at Transit will review how often the MTA can run L trains on nights and weekends when one of the two tubes is closed, what alternate service should be provided, and how best to communicate those changes to riders.
He reiterating throughout his talk that he will "not be steamrolled" by Cuomo's L-train desires.
About three dozen people were in attendance (there were rumors of Byford's appearance in the hours leading up the meeting). A few people asked questions:
Most of the questions focused on what would happen to the new bike lanes and 14th Street busway that had planned to ease commutes during a full L train shutdown. The bike lanes are entirely up to the Department of Transportation, said Byford, while the future of the 14th Street Select Bus Service will be a joint decision.
Read Gordon's full post at Gothamist via this link.
A reader shared this photo from Avenue A and 14th Street tonight, where workers continue to jackhammer away on the new L-train entrance here... apparently not impacted by the Governor's 11th-hour plan.
[14th Street at 4th Avenue looking east yesterday]
In recent weeks, I've noted how the city continues to prep 14th Street for its expanded role during the 15-month L-train closure next spring, including the markings for the Select Bus Service (SBS) lane between First Avenue and Third Avenue and the arrival of the dedicated bike lanes on 12th Street and 13th Street.
As previously reported, 14th Street will serve as a (mostly) car free busway for displaced subway commuters.
In an article posted Tuesday, Crain's (HT KT!) pointed out the latest alteration: red traffic lanes at 14th Street intersections between Third Avenue and Ninth Avenue, "which will signal that motorists must exit."
To Crain's:
By April, white Bus Only wording will be stenciled in the black boxes to make the message clear. Similar restricted lanes are planned for Delancey Street between the Williamsburg Bridge and the Bowery.
You can kind of see the full effect in this dodging-traffic shot...
And next?
Also to come are pedestrian walkways on 14th Street to relieve jammed sidewalks, as well as designated curbside loading zones for businesses.
This is what that plan (unveiled this past summer) looks like via the city...
Meanwhile, here's (part of) the area in front of the future tech hub, which will be a construction zone starting in the first quarter of 2019 ... likely making 14th Street even more stressed...
Back to Crain's:
The storm-related repairs to the East River crossing could drive 275,000 daily underground commuters to ground level at 14th Street, where the city plans to direct cars from the thoroughfare and run 80 buses per hour.
An EVG reader shared this notice from over at 426-430 E. 14th St., the three-building parcel between Avenue A and First Avenue...
Canvas Property Group announced that building-wide renovations were to start yesterday on vacant apartments, common areas and the retail spaces.
Five of the six storefronts are vacant (just Big Apple Barber Shop remains). The 14th St. Lotto & Magazine was the first to go, in February 2017. A clerk at the store said that they were moving uptown. He declined to say why they were leaving the neighborhood.
Back to the reader, who lives on the block — he said he felt badly for the remaining residents at 426-430 ... having endured the construction noise outside, and now inside.
The buildings were sold for $28 million in a transaction recorded in August, per public records.
There is improved pedestrian access now on the south side of 14th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue, the main construction zone leading up to, and during, the L-train rehab.
As the above photo from September shows, access to the five businesses west of Avenue A was limited to two feet-plus of unappealing sidewalk space that came to a dead end outside the Domino's Pizza outpost.
Meanwhile, most of the pedestrian traffic was diverted to the temporary sidewalk passage set up between the active construction site for creating entrances and exits for the L train at Avenue A and the two lanes of 14th Street.
[EVG photo from June]
The past week, however, the sidewalk situation was reconfigured on the south side of 14th Street... where pedestrians can now walk along the storefronts and away from traffic...
The sidewalk is now a little wider ...
... and you can still walk on it to First Avenue and beyond...
The employees at the Red Apple Barbershop, west of the string of shuttered shops, fear the 10-year-old shop could be next.
“Most of the foot traffic is on the road,” said Michael Vostok, the shop’s manager. The street pattern for construction sends passersby into a pathway in the streets and makes it difficult for Stuyvesant Town residents — critical clientele for the retailers — to both see and reach the shop.
As you may have heard, read, seen, the MTA yesterday announced that the much-anticipated and long-dreaded (but necessary!) L-train shutdown will begin on Saturday, April 27, 2019.
If you missed this, then here are more details via the MTA news release, shared here...
MTA New York City Transit (MTA NYC Transit) and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) announced new details about what customers can expect ahead of April 2019 when the L train tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn is closed for 15 months for extensive repairs from Superstorm Sandy...
• The L tunnel will close for its 15-month reconstruction on Saturday, April 27, 2019. This means that the last day for L service between 8th Av and Bedford Av in Brooklyn will be Friday, April 26, 2019. L train service will continue throughout Brooklyn, between the Bedford Av station, which will remain open during the tunnel closure, and the Canarsie-Rockaway Parkway station.
• The alternative service options for customers, which includes five additional bus routes, a new M14 Select Bus Service on 14th Street and a ferry service, will begin on Sunday, April 21, 2019, to allow for customers to sample and become acclimated to new travel options. The additional subway service on other lines – more than 1,000 additional roundtrips – will begin on April 28, 2019, following the L tunnel closure. Read the full plan for temporary service options in support of the L tunnel reconstruction project.
• Customers will be able to meet in person with MTA NYC Transit and NYCDOT team members to plan their routes, through a series of open houses, pop-up events or one of the three mobile information centers – two vans and a bus – which will make stops to meet with customers. Official dates and times for open houses and schedules for events and the mobile information center locations will be posted on the L tunnel reconstruction website once announced.
• Numerous stations have received or are receiving capacity expansions, with newly reopened or expanded entrances, stairs and corridors. NYCDOT and MTA NYC Transit are coordinating with key City agencies – such as the NYPD, Department of Buildings and Citywide Events Coordination and Management – on aligning City operations with the needs of L train alternate transit services, including working to minimize disruption from construction projects and events.
• The construction for the project is on schedule. In Manhattan, the construction site footprint and hours of work both reduce between 1st Avenue and Avenue A in January 2019. In Brooklyn, most barricades will be removed along with permanent street and sidewalk restoration on Bedford Avenue by early November 2018, and throughout early 2019, work will continue to open and do permanent finishes on the additional stairs, three of four which have already opened for increased capacity.
• Officials are committing to monitor the air for particulates typically caused by diesel emissions, known as PM2.5, and making results publicly available. This is in addition to the air quality monitoring already in place for the project’s construction sites.
• Outreach continues with customers, local residents, local businesses, and elected officials.
“We’re continuing unprecedented efforts at public outreach, responding to local communities and giving as much notice as possible on key dates in this project,” said NYC Transit President Andy Byford. “With the l running as a Brooklyn-only service for 15 months starting after the weekend of April 27, we’ve been hard at work with our partners at NYCDOT and other City agencies to make sure that the alternate train, bus, ferry and bicycle networks work together to get people around successfully.”
“With DOT crews now putting down new street markings for bus lanes and bike lanes, we are deeply committed to having our streets ready for the l tunnel closure next April,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “From a ‘bus bridge’ over the Williamsburg Bridge to the 14th Street Busway, from more Citi Bikes to expanded pedestrian space for displaced l train commuters, we and our MTA partners are up for this enormous challenge.”
For a reminder about remaining L service changes in 2018, visit the L 2018 service notice page. To help customers plan ahead in 2019, new service information details about the L in 2019 include:
Overnight service closures and weekend closures during February, March and April 2019, from 8th Av in Manhattan to Broadway Junction in Brooklyn to prepare the tunnel ahead of the closure and to expedite maintenance on the l tracks remaining in service when the tunnel is closed. Weekend dates scheduled are:
- Feb 2-3
- Feb 9-10
- Feb 16-17
- Feb 23-24
- Mar 2-3
- Mar 9-10
- Mar 16-17
- April 27-28
The MTA recently plastered both sides of 14th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue — the main construction zone for the L-train rehab — with banners touting the new ADA-compliant entrances on the way at Avenue A and other scenes from the incoming stations ... many of these renderings were similar to the ones unveiled in the summer of 2017.
However, there are several new scenes, which EVG reader Hank's Pound of Spaghetti shared... Hank had a sensible question: Why are the scalies arguing?
Does this indicate that life with the all-new L train still mean signal and switch problems and track fires, leading to possibly tense exchanges between commuters? Or are these roomies at EVGB upset over that drunken bocce match that got out of hand on the roof?
Hank also spotted the same female scalie with different male straphangers...
... and do these two know the men arguing behind them? ...
The L-train stop on First Avenue was among the victim's of this early afternoon's heavy rainfall... in case you haven't seen this clip making the rounds...
Last night, a handful of local elected officials along with reps from the MTA and the city gathered at Middle Collegiate Church on Second Avenue for an L-train shutdown Town Hall.
Aaron Gordon has a nice recap at Gothamist today. Here's an excerpt specifically related to my post yesterday about 14th Street and Avenue A serving as the main staging area for the upgrades to the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel:
Multiple residents voiced a belief that asbestos was being improperly disposed of in dumpsters near their apartments, something New York City Transit president Andy Byford assured them isn’t happening. He promised to post something on the MTA website detailing exactly what materials are being disposed of and that asbestos is not one of them, which requires completely separate disposal teams and procedures due to its high toxicity. “If you all really think that,” he said, “then I think we owe it to you to get something up on the website to get your mind at rest.”
Several citizens also expressed concern about the “considerable truck traffic,” as one put it, that has already inundated the neighborhood. Another said she’s experiencing more headaches and sore throats than usual and cannot open windows out of fear construction dust would enter her apartment. Byford pointed out they simply cannot do the work without trucks bringing materials in and out through the East Village shafts — which will become elevators into the 1st Ave L station after the shutdown is complete — but did offer that at the peak of construction, 30 trucks’ worth of debris will come out of the tunnel per day and 10 will be going in with new material.
[EVG photo from last month]
Byford also said that although the work inside the tunnel will be 24/7 to try and wrap up the project as quickly as possible, surface-level construction will not be all hours of the day.
Meanwhile, as Streetsblog reports, Community Board 6 members said that "the current plan for next year’s L-train shutdown will fall considerable short of what will be needed to efficiently move the 400,000 daily commuters who will be affected." This link goes to the Streetsblog piece.
To date, the majority of articles about the upcoming L-train repairs have focused on the transportation alternatives while the MTA upgrades the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel.
The 15-month L-train shutdown between Bedford Avenue and Eighth Avenue begins in April 2019.
The MTA outlined the extensive work that will take place in a news release last year:
Demolition and reconstruction of approximately 60,000 linear feet of duct banks, 14,400 linear feet of track and track bed, 270,000 linear feet of cable ducts and associated cables, repair of 7,000 linear feet of concrete lining, and the installation of tunnel lighting and fire systems. The tunnel will be also be protected from future storms with resiliency measures including construction of resilient cables and ducts and the installation of a new discharge line.
Prior to the tunnel closure, extensive station work will be performed that will increase operational efficiency and improve accessibility and circulation. Station improvements at the 1 Av and Bedford Av L Subway stations will include new stairways, and four accessibility-compliant elevators and other work to improve customer flow.
Preliminary work started in the summer of 2017 on building new entrances at Avenue A and a new power station at Avenue B. Since then, 14th Street between First Avenue east to Avenue B has been an active construction zone with a variety of trucks, drill rigs, pile drivers, compressors and generators.
[Reader-submitted photo]
Meanwhile, 14th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue is down to one lane of traffic in each direction.
This is a large — and noisy — project that has already taken its toll on nearby residents and businesses.
However, as some 14th Street residents recently discovered, as bad as it has been the past year, the construction is going to get a whole lot worse. A group of residents living at 542 E. 14th St. at Avenue B said that 14th Street and Avenue A will be the main access point for the 24/7 delivery of new Canarsie Tunnel infrastructure as well as the portal for removing debris from the tube.
BoweryBoogie first reported on this development on Aug. 29. A resident speaking on behalf of tenants at No. 542 provided an update after a second meeting with officials on the construction on Sept. 6
Describe what you have been through with the L-train work to date.
Our first inkling that something was up was on Aug. 5, 2017 (a Saturday), when workers showed up and quietly dismantled the bus stop at the corner of 14th Street and Avenue B. There was no community announcement about a construction job about to begin at that location, no posted announcement about the bus stop removal.
Since that time, the project and site have been growing and growing — from Avenue B to First Avenue, on both the north and south sides of the street. The noise and pollution have made our building untenable. For almost a year, we've had on our block (14th between A and B) over 30 diesel machines (generators, four-story drills, compressors, bulldozers, backhoes, etc.) running six days a week, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
[Reader-submitted photo]
The noise has been astounding. We've regularly made recordings of decibel readings in the high 90s to 120 on many of the machines — way above DEP allowable levels. We've also reported diesel run off into the streets and gutters.
[Reader-submitted photo]
For as horrific as the scope of the project has been, it has continued to get worse in every respect.
While all this has been going on, a crucial, game-changing piece of paper was tacked up at the site on the corner of 14th and A: A permit issued by DEP to the MTA approving 24/7 work hours beginning May 2018 for a full year. Mr. Nirva Paul at the DEP signed off on this permit (below) without the DEP having responded to a single one of our scores of complaints, and with no community interaction whatsoever.
In our first meeting — not a publicly announced, town-hall meeting, but one organized for residents of 542 E. 14th St. with the MTA and Judlau Contracting, Inc. by Assemblymember Harvey Epstein — MTA and Judlau finally admitted ... that their diesel emissions are not being monitored, and their noise levels are not being monitored. We were told in that first meeting that they weren't monitoring diesel emissions because a) they weren't required to, and b) there is so much diesel in the air already, there's no point in monitoring it.
The refrain from the MTA for the Carnarsie Tunnel Project has always been a firm, frantic — "This has to be done!" As if we're in an emergency state of repair. This is a bullying technique of they use to cover their bad planning.
The fact is, Hurricane Sandy happened in 2012 and they've had six years to figure out the best way to do this work with minimal community impact. They are a state agency, and appear to be clueless about our how our neighborhood functions.
This work has already greatly affected the businesses on 14th Street between B and First Avenue. Several have already gone out of business due to severely limited access to their storefronts. Several (west of Avenue A) are suffering because their customer access now is only 28" of sidewalk space, not big enough for a wheelchair in spots.
What we learned in that first meeting was the MTA's plan to make that very spot, at 14th and A, the sole entry and exit point for all old tunnel materials and all new tunnel materials. Heretofore, they had told the public that the work on that corner was for the new stairways and elevator for the station.
The work that's being done — long ahead of the stairways and elevator — is to create entry and exit points for a constant (24/7) flow of yet more diesel trucks removing debris that contains asbestos and silica dust (you can learn about that on the MTA's very own YouTube channel).
Residents said that they have filed complaints with the MTA and the DEP. What has been their response?
We — at least five of us in our building alone — have made a steady flow of very specific, documented complaints about violations to the MTA and the DEP about noise, diesel pollution and traffic congestion. We've had zero response from either agency. The only responses we’ve been able to obtain have been verbally, during the two meetings we’ve had so far with them and the Assemblymember.
You said that MTA reps confirmed on Sept. 6 that the area between Avenue A and First Avenue will be the main staging area — 24/7 — during the reconstruction. Before this, were you aware of any public meetings to let community members know about the work?
There were public meetings, but none of them addressed what you mention, which is what leaked, we believe for the first time, during our first meeting with the MTA, Judlau and Assemblymember Epstein. You can check the records on that — no publicly released information mentioned the staging area or the 24/7 work.
The only work mentioned was installation of the underground power station at Avenue B, and the construction of the elevator and stairways down to the new station on either side of Avenue A. We know of no place this “main staging area” information was made public before now; if it was, it certainly is not known at all in the affected area.
What is your biggest concern about the work?
The fact that the MTA’s current plan is to truck out hundreds of tons of tunnel debris. Much of this debris is known to be contaminated with silica dust and asbestos as acknowledged by the MTA on its YouTube site.
The Avenue A access point 50 feet from a school and church. This debris will be carted out 24/7 for a year and a half, under tight deadlines and facing and with contractors facing stiff penalities for each day the deadline passes, through the streets of the East Village and Stuy Town.
On the delivery end, the MTA will be commandeering the service/access roads of Stuytown to deliver all the tunnel materials, again 24/7. With a very conservative estimate of 30 trucks a day, that is over 13,000 truck deliveries, with all the pollution, idling, beeping and noise coming into what will be some of the most heavily-trafficked blocks and street in the city.
The fact that we’re facing two years of diesel trucks lined up and idling, coming and going round the clock, in an already heavily congested area.
The fact that the neighborhood will very likely to become a parking area for idling diesel trucks, 24/7. This alone will create conditions even more untenable than those we’re already facing.
Why is this being done undercover, in such a shady fashion? The only answer to that is they know community response will be outrage once people have a chance to fully grasp what’s in store. Keeping it secret will allow them to get far enough into the project that there will, arguably, be no turning back. But the nightmare of the plan (and the congestion, not to mention the pollution), combined with their plan to use 14th Street for a substantially increased number of buses round the clock, will have a devastating effect on the area.
Now that we know the plan, we’re calling on all public officials for our district to come out against the plan, and for the Mayor and the Governor to put a moratorium on work until an independent auditor can be brought in to assess the impact of this plan on the community’s health and well-being, and to engage the community in this plan.
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Debris removal from this entry point on 14th Street is likely among the topics to be discussed this evening during a Town Hall on the L tunnel reconstruction project. The event takes place at Middle Collegiate Church, 112 Second Ave. between Sixth Street and Seventh Street from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
We're seven months away from the scheduled L train shutdown. Join @CarlinaRivera and I, along with several other elected officials, for an East Side town hall featuring the latest updates from @NYCTSubway President Byford and @NYC_DOT Commissioner Trottenberg. Details below. pic.twitter.com/MOB9t6BJcX
The city and MTA have decided to get an early start on converting 14th Street into a bus-only corridor ... beginning on Jan. 6 — three-plus months ahead of L-mageddon time.
City officials said that they need the extra months to test M14 SBS service and make adjustments before the shutdown begins.
To ensure buses are up to the task of absorbing some of that crowd, the city and MTA plan to institute bus-only restrictions on 14th Street between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m., seven days a week. The restrictions will be in place between Ninth and Third avenues eastbound, and Third and Eighth avenues westbound. A DOT spokeswoman said the city is hashing out “specific access points” for local traffic and trucks.
The SBS route will initially make five stops between First Avenue and Tenth Avenue. The SBS route will complement existing M14A and M14D service so that buses will arrive every two minutes during morning and evening rush hours. Combined, the local and SBS service is expected to handle about 84,000 riders per day.
The shutdown of the L — between Bedford Avenue and Eighth Avenue to repair the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel — is expected to last 15 months.
Citi Bike will add more than 1,200 new bikes and 2,500 docking stations next spring ahead of the L-train shutdown.
Here are more details about the increased Citi Bike presence via a news release from the Mayor's office:
More Citi Bikes, denser coverage: In Citi Bike’s busiest areas, cycling is expected to expand dramatically with the L train’s disruption next year. The first stage of the City’s plan to increase capacity in Citi Bike’s existing service area will focus in Manhattan between Canal Street and 59th Street and the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where Citi Bike will offer denser coverage with 2,500 new docks and 1,250 new bicycles.
The process of providing denser coverage is known as “infill,” and will involve both new docking stations and enlarging current stations. DOT and Citi Bike will coordinate a robust community engagement process. working closely with local elected officials, community groups as well as the affected community boards – Brooklyn Community Board 1 and Manhattan Community Boards 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
And...
More Citi Bike valet stations: In anticipation of the L train disruption, Citi Bike expects to add as many as ten new valet stations, located in areas heavily affected by the L train disruption, including Williamsburg, the Lower East Side, along the 14th Street corridor and adjacent to East River ferry stops in both Brooklyn and Manhattan.
And...
Citi Bike pedal-assist “Shuttle Service”: Citi Bike announced that it would add a temporary, additional 1,000 pedal-assist bicycle “Shuttle Service” to its fleet during the L train closure, which would designate four conveniently-located pedal-assist docking stations — two in Williamsburg and two in lower Manhattan for their exclusive use. “Shuttle Service” bicycles could only be rented and returned to these stations.
During a City Council hearing yesterday, New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said alternative subway routes would carry 70 percent to 80 percent of the displaced riders entering Manhattan, The Wall Street Journalreported.
Fifteen percent of commuters are expected to use buses, 5 percent additional ferry service and 3 percent to 5 percent bikes, per Trottenberg.
The shutdown of the L — between Bedford Avenue and Eighth Avenue to repair the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel — is expected to last 15 months with a start date of April 2019.
The fate of 14th Street during the L-train shutdown starting next April has apparently been decided.
As the Daily Newsfirst reported, the city will limit car traffic on 14th Street from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.
The changes affect 14th Street from Ninth Avenue to Third Avenue eastbound and Third Avenue to Eighth Avenue westbound.
A few other details:
The city Department of Transportation ... will also change its plans for a bike lane. There will now be two one-way bike paths on 12th and 13th Sts., instead of a single two-way path on 13th St., officials said, so fewer parking spots on 13th St. will be eliminated. A DOT official said that the new design with two bike lanes would handle the higher cyclist traffic better, with easier pick up and drop-offs on the south curbs.
And...
Manhattan residents will also be able to use 14th St. for pickups and dropoffs only.
On Wednesday afternoon, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Transportation Committee Chair Ydanis Rodriguez will co-host a public oversight hearing to evaluate the latest mitigation plans for L-mageddon.
The shutdown of the L — between Bedford Avenue and Eighth Avenue to repair the Sandy-damaged Canarsie Tunnel — is expected to last 15 months with a start date of April 2019.
On Wednesday, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Transportation Committee Chair Ydanis Rodriguez will be co-hosting a public oversight hearing to evaluate the latest mitigation plans for the 2019 L train tunnel closure.
If you're one of the hundreds of thousands New Yorkers who will be impacted when the MTA shuts down the L train between Manhattan and Brooklyn for 15 months for repairs beginning in April 2019, we invite you to attend this important hearing.
The hearing will begin at 1 p.m. in the Jacob Burns Moot Court Room of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Brookdale Center, located at 55 Fifth Avenue (at 12th Street). We expect it to go into the early evening depending on the number of people who show up to testify.
If you plan on attending, we encourage you to RSVP [here] to help us know how many people we should anticipate.
Public testimony will begin immediately following the testimony of any invited experts and will generally be limited to two minutes per person to allow as many residents as possible to present their views.
For those planning to testify in person, please be sure to register with the sergeant-at-arms at the Center as soon as you arrive at the hearing.
If you can't make it to the hearing but would still like to make your voice heard, you can also submit written testimony to the City Council by emailing correspondence@council.nyc.gov with the subject line: L TRAIN SHUTDOWN TESTIMONY. Written testimony will be accepted until the close of business (6 p.m.) on Friday, June 29.
The MTA and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) are hosting two more town halls this month to discuss the upcoming L-train shutdown.
NYC Transit President Andy Byford, NYCDOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg and other agency representatives will explain alternate transit options, address questions and reveal how the agency plans to help get the 225,000 daily weekday customers – 50,000 in Manhattan alone – to their destinations during the service interruption that will cut all L train service between Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan for 15 months beginning in April of 2019.
NYCDOT will discuss proposed changes like HOV restrictions on the Williamsburg Bridge, the addition of Select Bus Service to 14th Street, and additional protected bike lanes and bus lanes to offset the inconvenience of the missing subway.
The Manhattan meeting is tomorrow night from 6:30-8:30 (doors open at 5:30) at The Auditorium (at The New School) at 66 W. 12th St. between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue.
