MTA Metro Card vending machines will be out of service at the Roosevelt Island side Tram Station until June 16 but there is one machine working
at the Manhattan Tram Station.
Have you noticed lines forming behind the Manhattan Tram Metro Card Machine blocking those with Metro Cards from going thru the turnstile to the platform area.
Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Public Information Officer Alonza Robertson explains the reason for no Roosevelt Island Tram station Metro Card Vending machine: According to Mr. Robertson:
Due to on-going construction work on Tram platforms, at both Roosevelt Island and Midtown Manhattan, the MetroCard vending machines will be out of service at the Roosevelt Island Station until June 16.
Commuters are advised to buy a roundtrip ticket at the Midtown Manhattan Station or at the MTA Roosevelt Island MTA subway station.
The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) will operate a free, weekday roundtrip Red Bus service – from Midtown Manhattan to Roosevelt Island - from 3 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. to help alleviate evening rush-hour waiting and congestion due to reduced tram cabin availability during this construction period.
This new construction completes work that began last July when RIOC contracted with Specialty Construction System, Inc. to address corrosion and water damage to both stations’ platforms at a cost of $2.15 million. The project included the installation and repair of station roofing, removal and repair of the structural slabs and metal column and building a new ADA-compliant access ramp on the north ramp of the Roosevelt Island Tram Station.
New concrete slabs, which are the top surfaces of the platforms at both stations, will be waterproofed and receive new traffic coating during the next month. The project went on hiatus in December 2017 until New York City area’s daily temperatures were forecast to be above those required for the installation.
“Although uncracked concrete will typically keep out liquid water, water vapor can still penetrate quite easily,” said Stephen Noone, RIOC’s assistant vice president of Capital Planning and Projects. “Keeping water drained away from the concrete foundations and preventing it from moving through the platforms is essential to having a successful structure,” he said.
Once that work is complete, the city’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) will re-install turnstiles, ticket machine kiosks and re-program electronic emergency exit doors.
Much of the platform project construction is being done around the North Tram’s boarding and de-boarding ramps on both platforms, and thus “we will be limited to only the South Tram servicing the public and because of this, waiting times will unfortunately increase,” said Armando Cordova, operations and maintenance manager for Leitner-Pomo of America, the engineering sub-contractor that operates the Tram for RIOC.
RIOC’s Director of Transportation Cyril Opperman said the Red Bus shuttle service will begin at 3 p.m., each weekday during the construction period, operating roundtrip from Midtown Manhattan to Roosevelt Island every half hour leaving from the southwest side of Second Avenue between 58th and 59th streets.
“The service is not being offered during the morning commute because the average weekday traffic congestion to Midtown Manhattan is so great, the roundtrip shuttle is not time efficient,” Opperman said.
The MTA’s F-Train, NYC Ferry and the Q-102 bus will be in operation to Roosevelt Island during the 30-day platform construction period that began May 16.
Also this week, a new construction project to upgrade the Manhattan Tram Station elevator began and the two building phases will be finished by next Spring, RIOC officials said.
The elevator project, at 59th Street and Second Avenue, is part of a series on-going transportation upgrades to the Roosevelt Island Tram. The design calls for an iconic, two-bank, ADA-compliant glass elevator which replaces the existing elevator that has outlasted its expected mechanical life.
During a two-year period, RIOC solicited public input, met with New York City Department of Parks and Recreation officials and community members to shape and finalize the project design which will require custom manufacturing.
The construction contract was awarded in December 2017 to Sea Crest Construction Corporation, a subsidiary of Scalamandre Construction, Inc., both based in Long Island, New York. Both companies have decades of public works project experience building transit plazas, industrial plants, roads, bridges and airport terminals across the New York metropolitan area.
The project will be completed in two phases; the first of the two glass elevator banks will be built and the existing old elevator will be dismantled. Then the second glass elevator bank will be constructed so that there will always be a working elevator.
“We have begun doing some isolated exploration and boring work on the site this week,” said RIOC Public Information Officer Alonza Robertson. “We will continue that and then set up the site construction fencing by the end of the month.”
The fencing will not encroach or restrict access to the surrounding sidewalks or station entryway. During the steel erection work, an overhead sidewalk shed will be installed. The park area around the Tram station will be closed and several planter beds will be temporarily relocated.
Architectural renderings of the Manhattan Tram Station elevator project design are available upon request.
