MTA: Culver Viaduct Project is On Schedule

The MTA’s big construction plans for the F and G lines are moving along – and actually on time, too.

At a Community Board 6 meeting at the Prospect Park YMCA on Thursday evening, representatives from the agency touted that the Culver Viaduct Project will enter the next phase of construction on May 23. The entire project, they said, is slated for completion in early 2013.

“Even with the horrible weather, we only lost two weeks this winter,” Andrew Inglesby, Assistant Director of Community Relations for the MTA, boasted.

The $275.5 million engineering and construction project will rehabilitate the elevated steel and concrete Culver Viaduct structure, which both the F and G train lines run along. The MTA has said it will also work to rehabilitate signals and switches, as well as the platforms, canopies and historic archway at the 4th Avenue-9th Street station.

Starting in mid-June, service to and from Smith-9th Streets will be suspended entirely until March of 2012 for a total station rehabilitation.

MTA representatives, and Allyson Bechtel, Senior Transportation Planner, explained that transportation would be supplemented by the B61, which will provide more frequent travel late nights during the nine month period. Daytime frequency will remain the same.

“People assume its a high volume station, the truth is its in the lower third in terms of ridership,” said Inglesby. Both officials were confident that the B61 will be enough to provide commuters with their needs, although Inglesby noted that the MTA would be willing to look at alternatives “if travel patterns are exacerbated.”

Inglesby also noted that the progress at the 4th Avenue-9th Street “is rapidly progressing.”

The east-side head house should be open by the end of the year, with four new turnstiles and a couple new Metro Card vending machines. Funds from Borough President Markowitz and Assemblywoman Joan Millman will allow for street improvements to the station, including improved lighting and renovations of the historic arch.

Earlier this month, MTA officials revealed that after five months of suspended service, the northbound F and G trains to 15th Street-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton subway stations. Locals were thrilled.

On Thursdays, officials revealed more details. This temporary restoration of full service will continue until November, when Brooklyn-bound commuters at 15th Street-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton will instead be hit with a major commuting pain when southbound service is eliminated at these stations.

This weekend, in anticipation of the reopening of the Manhattan-bound 15th Street-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton lines, shuttle buses will replace F trains between Jay Street-MetroTech and 18th Avenue and G trains between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and Church Avenue.