16
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JAN. 20, 2019
BY COLIN MIXSON
Contractors this month
kicked off a two-year-plus
project to install elevators
and make other handicapaccessible
improvements to
Prospect Heights’s Eastern
Parkway–Brooklyn Museum
subway station.
Workers with the staterun
Metropolitan Transportation
Authority on
Jan. 7 closed an entrance
to the 2- and 3-train station
on Eastern Parkway opposite
the Brooklyn Museum,
ahead of installing new
stairs and railings compliant
with federal accessibility
laws as part of the
26-month makeover’s fi rst
phase, which is set to wrap
in September, according to
Authority spokesman Andrei
Berman.
Contractors also cordoned
off the Prospect
Heights–bound Eastern
Parkway Service Road between
Washington and
Underhill avenues to use
as a staging area for construction,
which required
the elimination of several
parking spots and narrowing
the traffi c lane on that
block.
Department of Transportation
documents show
the staging area is permitted
through March 21.
But a worker at the site
on Jan. 9 said contractors
would obtain additional
permits as necessary to use
the block beyond the current
expiration date.
The sudden arrival of
construction outfi ts came
as a surprise to some locals
who live along that stretch
of the Service Road, however,
one of whom accused
the Authority of giving no
notice of the renovations.
“It would have been
nice to know,” said Heather
Paul, a 40-year resident of
Eastern Parkway’s Turner
Towers.
A doorman at her building
told this reporter he
handed out fl iers to residents
in advance of the
project, but Paul claimed
she never saw or received
any such notices.
Berman assured that
the Service Road’s traffi
c lane, while narrower,
would be open to vehicles
at all times throughout construction,
but barricades
made of caution tape and
traffi c drums completely
blocked off an entrance to
it near Washington Avenue
when this reporter stopped
by, forcing a United Parcel
Service employee to park
his truck on the avenue
and walk packages to their
fi nal destinations.
“They wouldn’t let me
go through,” said the delivery
man, who declined
to give his name, citing
CLOSED FOR CONSTRUCTION: Workers shuttered an Eastern Parkway entrance to the station to accommodate
the renovations. Photo by Colin Mixson
company policy.
A contractor with the
Authority, who also declined
to give his name,
said workers at the site
closed the roadway to ensure
their safety, but Berman
only reiterated his
claim that the Service Road
would remain open to vehicles
when told about the
blocked entrance to it from
Washington Avenue.
Future phases of the
years-long station renovation
call for installing a
street-to-mezzanine elevator
on the Brooklyn Museum
side of the hub, along
with two more lifts from
the mezzanine to both the
Brooklyn- and Manhattanbound
subway platforms,
and new elevator-machine
rooms and handicap-accessible
boarding areas outside
the lifts, Berman said.
It’s going down
Work begins on elevators at Museum station
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