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The latest to join a long list of New York City subway lines undergoing repairs is the N train line in Brooklyn. Beginning in the spring of 2018, the express tunnel running between 36th and 59th Streets will be closed to deal with the rusted beams that hold up the tunnel, the Brooklyn Paper reports.
At least it’s not quite as dramatic as the impending shutdown of the Canarsie tunnel that connects Brooklyn to Manhattan on the L train, or the 14-month closure of the Montague tunnel that disrupted service on the R train. But regardless, that won’t provide much comfort to commuters who will have to ride the train on the local track.
The announcement of the shutdown, which will take place between May 2018 and May 2019, took place at a community board meeting this week, though it seems one of the board members presented a more dire prognosis of the repairs than the Metropolitan Transportation Authority would have hoped.
The board member suggested that the tunnel was in danger of caving in but a spokesperson for the MTA categorically denied this claim telling those present at the board meeting, “do you just make it up along the way?” according to the Brooklyn Paper. “The tunnel is NOT on the verge of ‘caving in’ as you so eloquently state, and there is no danger to our customers,” he added.
The repairs were in large part prompted by work on Fourth Avenue above. Road work over the years has led water to seep into the tunnels instead of draining into the sewers, and that in turn has corroded the beams that hold up the tunnel. Another line set to undergo repairs is the M train in Bushwick where residents will have to relocate starting June this year for work to take place.