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Neglected L Train Tunnel Will be Sealed to Drive Out Homeless, MTA Says

By Meredith Hoffman | March 29, 2013 7:06am | Updated on March 29, 2013 9:36am

BUSHWICK — A section of the L train line has become so decrepit that the city plans on closing up part of the structure to prevent "undesirable activity," officials said.

After residents expressed concern that homeless people were sleeping in an underpass of the elevated L line near Broadway Junction, MTA officials decided to close up the tunnel, a spokesman for the agency said.

"There is a small opening of our L line structure between Cooke Court and Bushwick Avenue that has become a sleeping place for a couple of homeless people," said Kevin Ortiz, the spokesman. "The community was also concerned about cracks in the L line structure."

While Ortiz said the MTA would make "cosmetic repairs" to the cracks in the graffiti-covered building where some bricks appear to be falling off the walls, he maintained that "the structure is perfectly safe."  

He said the MTA would close the underpass, as long as the Department of Transportation confirmed it was not "technically a street."

"If it is not...we can brick up the underpass and prevent any undesirable activity there," he said.

A DOT spokesman said the agency was still working to determine the underpass' status.