Another Astounding Example of MTA Incompetence
I hate kicking someone when they’re down, but this example of the MTA’s inefficiency cannot be ignored.
This stairway at the Grand Street station on the B/D has eight steps. Apparently, it takes 13 days for the MTA to repair 8 steps. That’s an average of less than 2/3 of a step repaired each day.
This pace is bad enough when you notice a stairway is sitting dormant this long. It’s worse when they actually know ahead of time that it’s going to take nearly two weeks to repair a few steps and put it right out there in green and white for all subway riders to see.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 9:55 am and is filed under Subway Stupidity. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 18th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
If There Were 25 Hours In The Day… says:[…] That MTA certainly does have a sense of humor. [East Village Idiot] […]
March 18th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Mike G. says:It took them months to repair the moving walkways at 23-Ely/Court Square—one of the most heavily used transfers in the city. Why truly private contractors couldn’t have been hired to fix it in a week is beyond me. But, hey, let government keep telling us we need to pay more in taxes because we all benefit from these grand services they provide us. Ugh.
March 18th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Bensonhurst Chick says:The stairs at my station (20th ave. D/M train) have been closed off for a month now. It’s said to be done repairing by the end of this month but one can only hope.
They were also doing repairs on another stairway over the summer and the date of completion kept changing. It took them almost the entire summer…
March 18th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Steve says:Actually, for most capital repairs the MTA does use private contractors. Did it ever occur to you that maybe some of these repairs (not all) take so long because, well, that’s how long they take. 13 days to repair a concrete and steel staircase does not seem out of line to me (it probably has to be largely demolished and rebuilt. But what do I know? I only trained to be an architect.
March 18th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Mike G. says:I said “truly (sic) private contractors” because as everyone who has an uncle who works for the state can tell you: These contracts are about as biddable/winnable as me getting a contract to play SS for the Yankees.
But it’s only Wall St. that’s corrupt, right?
March 18th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Matt W says:I work in chinatown and use this station every day and I have to say that even when all the stairs were fixed it is the slowest part of my commute every day. Herds of old ladies going in both directions and a large fish market that spills out onto the street means a traffic jam there all day. Since these steps went down it has become a total nightmare. It barely even looks like it’s doing anything except pissing me off multiple times a week.
March 19th, 2009 at 12:10 am
Courtney says:when you’re done lobbying for construction expedience here, can you take up the cause of the I-95 corridor north of the Q-Bridge? Because I think they’re pushing about 12 years for that project. Thanks
March 19th, 2009 at 7:33 am
Chris says:Steve: Last I checked, concrete does not take 13 days to cure. Or even half of that. It’s EIGHT STEPS! There is no excuse for the pace of this project, especially considering that the bottlenecks it creates could be deadly in the event of an emergency.
March 19th, 2009 at 7:57 am
Politburo says:Chris: Check again. Proper curing is the most important aspect of concrete installation. If they did not allot enough time for curing, you’d be back here within a year complaining about the cracked stairs.
The number of steps is completely irrelevant to the cure time.
March 19th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Marjorie says:The highrise across the street from me has been doing exterior work including balcony repair for over a year. This means for the last year these residents have not been able to use their balconies because they are stripped down to just a flat horizontal concrete slab. It is a big safety hazard and I have no idea why they are doing all of them at once instead of focusing on a section of the building.
March 19th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Chris says:You people live in a rarefied world. If you really want to see the MTA’s incompetence with regard to repairing concrete stairs, get on the D train at Grand Street or whatever ailing station you like, and get off uptown, at 155th. Now THERE’S a closed staircase worth complaining about. It’s been barricaded since last October, possibly even September. I didn’t count the steps, or do any cure-time studies. I’ll leave that up to you Villagers to figure out. In any case, my suspicion is that since this station is used primarily by lower-class people of color, those pesky little details will have even less to do with the reopening date (2010? 2020?) than they do in your corner of town. 13 days? We should be so lucky.