QUEENS — Residents are growing increasingly impatient as a long-awaited elevator at the Briarwood subway station — which was initially scheduled to open in 2014 — may still be several months away from completion, even after Gov. Andrew Cuomo claimed it was completed last December.
The elevator at the station, which serves the E and F trains, has been under construction for years as part of the Kew Gardens Interchange project, a lengthy and complicated undertaking to widen the Van Wyck Expressway that started in 2010.
After numerous delays, officials said last August that the elevator would be finished by the end of 2016.
In December, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced "completion of a $159 million project to reconstruct the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens ... including an Americans with Disabilities Act compliant elevator" at the Briarwood subway station.
Asked specifically about the elevator, a representative for the state Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the Interchange project, said at the time that it was finished, but had yet to be approved by the MTA.
But as of this week, scaffolding still surrounded the elevator entrance, on the corner of Main Street and Queens Boulevard, and some of its side panels were still covered with plywood instead of glass.
"This will never end," said Regina Gloger, 36, a local resident who said her 71-year-old mother struggles while climbing more than three dozens steps between the street level and the pedestrian tunnel leading to the mezzanine, which the elevator would help her avoid.
Gloger said that they often take the Q60 bus to the Kew Gardens subway station instead, because that station has an elevator.
"This construction has been very frustrating," she said, referring to the Interchange project.
Some locals, including parents traveling with strollers, choose to walk more than a half a mile to Kew Gardens, an extra 15 minutes away, residents said.
The elevator will only go from the street level to the pedestrian tunnel. The MTA did not immediately respond to an email asking whether there are plans to build another elevator from the mezzanine to the platform.
"The whole point of the elevator being installed was to provide convenience, particularly to people who have some difficulty walking or perhaps parents with strollers and like everything else about this project there have been delays and a lot of inconvenience and hardships," said Aida Vernon, president of the Briarwood Action Network, a local civic association.
Diane Park, a spokeswoman for the state DOT, said Tuesday that the agency currently expects the elevator to be completed by late spring.
She also said that the agency "is working with the MTA to complete installation and inspection of specialized equipment that needed to be ordered to complete work on the elevator."
The 1,000-pound specialized equipment, according to the agency, is necessary for the elevator’s security cameras, fire alarm and intercom. It is being installed in the MTA’s communications room, they said.
“We are working closely with DOT to make sure the elevator will open soon and will be operating safely,” Amanda Kwan, a spokeswoman for the MTA said in a statement.
Jon Weinstein, a spokesman for Gov. Cuomo said that "the Governor’s office has spoken with both the MTA and DOT about ensuring the elevator is operating as soon as possible."
But locals remain skeptical.
"It will be a welcome addition when it gets here and we are hoping that we are getting very close to the end of this project," Vernon said. "But we are used to being given information about completion that turns out not to be true," she added.
