Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Lexington Avenue 4, 5, 6 Line Closed for Repairs at Night

By Tom Liddy | January 8, 2012 2:59pm | Updated on January 9, 2012 8:04am
Part of the Lexington Avenue line will be shut for four nights this week.
Part of the Lexington Avenue line will be shut for four nights this week.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Jennifer Glickel

MANHATTAN — In an underground blitz worthy of the Giants' pass rush, the MTA is planning to shut down a large portion of the Lexington Avenue line for four nights in a row this week to undertake much-needed construction.

The change will shutter the line in both directions from Grand Central Station to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn starting Monday at 10 p.m., the MTA said.

According to the agency, the busy line will be closed from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday as well.

Without trains getting in the way, workers on the FASTRACK project will inspect tracks and signals and clean the roadbed to keep the signals functioning properly.

They will also power wash some of the stations and conduct repairs on platform edges and tiles.

The hope is to accomplish in days what would normally take weeks under the transit authority's current regime of conducting repairs while trains remain in service.

“All of this is work that must be done to maintain the safe, smooth and efficient operation of a subway system that runs around the clock, seven days a week.  However, by suspending service along line segments, workers can work on and near the tracks without having to interrupt that work every few minutes while a train moves through the area,” said transit president Thomas F. Prendergast. 

Some 15 stations along 6.7 miles of subway will be affected. Straphangers are encouraged to use parallel lines and to allow for extra time during their trips.

The next FASTRACK shutdown will affect the Seventh Avenue 1, 2, 3 line between 34th Street and Atlantic Avenue on four consecutive weeknights beginning on Feb. 13.