MTA announces major improvements to passenger accessibility

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has announced that MTA Construction & Development will present to the MTA Board for approval plans for historic improvements to further accessibility at 26 New York City Transit stations this week (13-19 December). The MTA says this new round of investments is part of the authority’s ongoing commitment to accessibility and, if approved, plans include making 19 stations newly accessible and the rehabilitation of existing elevators at seven stations.

“Accessibility improvements are central to the MTA and are at the top of the list of our capital programme initiatives,” said Janno Lieber, MTA Acting Chair and CEO.

 “Our transit system is the lynchpin of this region and has to be accessible for everyone. The time is now to deliver these projects to our riders who depend on us to get to work, school, and wherever they need to go. Implementing this kind of first in the nation public private partnership for ADA improvements demonstrates the MTA’s firm commitment to expanding accessibility.”

Jamie Torres-Springer, MTA Construction & Development President added: “The MTA’s historic investment in upgrading 26 stations and investing billions of dollars in the 2020-2024 Capital Plan for accessibility is indicative of our ongoing commitment to our riders. We are using every tool available to innovate so we can speed up on-budget delivery of these assets and ensure they are well maintained.”

“Next week’s board meeting will be one of the most important meetings in the MTA’s history when it comes to discussing ADA projects and our commitment to accessibility,” commented MTA Chief Accessibility Officer, Quemuel Arroyo. “Leveraging Design-Build-Finance-Maintain is going to help the MTA make a major leap forward in making our system more accessible at a fraction of the time and cost.”

The MTA board will be requested to adopt a resolution to utilise a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) to procure a Public Private Partnership agreement for the design, construction, financing, and maintenance of elevators and other ADA improvements at selected New York City Transit subway stations in the 2020 to 2024 Capital Plan, including upgrades to new elevators at eight stations: Church Av, Sheepshead Bay, Rockaway Blv, Kings Highway, Woodhaven Blvd, Steinway St, Junius St, Mosholu Pkwy.

This component also includes the replacement of existing elevators at: 125 St, 34 St-Penn Station, Euclid Av, 161 St St-Yankee Stadium, and 3 Av to 149 St.

There are 13 new accessible stations currently in construction. Of these, the MTA says four are forecasted for completion in 2022 and nine in 2023.