MTA to reopen A-Train service on Rockaway Line, continue other Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts

Yesterday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced MTA New York City Transit's (NYCT) A-Train service on the Rockaway line will resume on May 30. The line has been shut down since Hurricane Sandy struck the region in October 2012.

To repair the line, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) rebuilt 1,500 feet of washed-out tracks, replaced miles of signal, power and communications wires, and rehabilitated two stations that had been flooded, MTA officials said in a press release.

The new work included installation of a corrugated marine steel sheet wall 30 feet into the soil over two miles of the right-of-way along Jamaica Bay to protect track against future washouts.

Cuomo also announced several MTA initiatives to permanently repair damage from Hurricane Sandy, flood-proof major sections of the New York City subway system and begin planning to fortify the area's mass transit network.

"The last six months have meant substantial cleanup and repair, leading to the rapid restoration of full service in all but the hardest-hit facilities," Cuomo said in a prepared statement. "Now we must focus on the priority and challenge of making permanent repairs to keep the subways safe and reliable for years to come because the people and businesses of New York depend on a strong and robust mass transit system."

NYCT has established a new Sandy Recovery and Resiliency Division dedicated to launching, advancing and managing the rebuilding efforts, which will require years of construction and oversight of billions of federal dollars. The goal is to protect all points where the subway system could be flooded during a storm, MTA officials said.

The division has issued 16 task orders to six architectural and engineering design firms, which will design system repairs and study best practices from flood-proofing resiliency efforts around the world, investigate how they can be applied to NYCT, and develop schematic designs for construction. In summer, they are expected to present the first series of plans to protect vulnerable subway stations, tunnels, storage yards and other equipment from future storms and flooding.