July 14, 2020
Dear Neighbors,
It fits!
This weekend, the Long Island Railroad and their contractor, 3TC achieved an important and amazing milestone. They pushed the 8 million pound New Hyde Park Road undergrade crossing and railroad bridge into place and reopened the mainline for railroad traffic. This was an amazing engineering feat; only the third time the technique has been used in the Americas (Covert Avenue was the first). The process involves pushing the tremendous structure across the ground, stopping every 20 inches to make sure it is going straight and not too high or not too low. If it’s too low, they simply add some dirt in front of it. If it’s too low, they dig dirt out of the way. The challenge is that they can only move it one direction. Luckily, they got it right.
More importantly, the important milestone gets us that much closer to the reopening of New Hyde Park Road without having to wait for the railroad gates to go up. The work on the new station has also accelerated. Work on the eliminating the South 12th Street at grade crossing is scheduled for the first quarter of 2021. The replacement of the electrical substation is slated for the summer of next year. The pace is very fast and we look forward to when they will be finished.
Meanwhile, we are enduring the pain of all this progress. The Village Board continues to hold 3TC and the LIRR accountable to do everything they can to mitigate the adverse impacts we are suffering during construction. We are also following up with them on the open items that are yet to be resolved. Trustee Burger and Trustee Pallisco recently walked the Covert Avenue site to catalog the unfinished items that are yet to be completed.
You too can help in the effort to keep 3TC compliant with their contract to mitigate impacts on the village as much as possible. When I negotiated our contract with the MTA, I insisted that the people most affected by the project would have a say in how the MTA penalized or rewarded the contractor to perform. This resulted in quarterly survey that goes out to residents to grade 3TC’s performance. I urge New Hyde Park residents to take three minutes and complete this survey.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CommunityScorecard2Q2020
The Third Track is a massive construction project for our village to experience. We will see an end to this construction and all of the disruptive affects. This weekend, we have come significantly closer to seeing that day.
Sincerely,
Lawrence J. Montreuil
Mayor, Village of New Hyde Park
Sincerely,
Lawrence J. Montreuil
Mayor, Village of New Hyde Park