MTA approves $240M subway renovation project; 8 subway stations will temporarily close
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Eight subway stations will be closing for repairs after the MTA board voted in favor of major renovation project.
It is part of Governor Andrew Cuomo's controversial "Enhanced Station Initiative."
The stations set to close for repairs will be in Manhattan and the Bronx, along the Lexington Avenue line and the Sixth Avenue line.
MTA officials gave the green light for the repairs that were part of a $240 million plan to repair the subway systems.
A total of eight stations will undergo complete repairs similar to the three already done along with R line in Brooklyn.
Some of the ones to watch out for: 23rd Street and 57th on the 6th line, 28th on the Lexington line, and 34th Penn Station on the Seventh and Eighth Avenue lines.
MTA officials say the repairs will improve signal problems, track problems and infrastructure -- which in the end, they say will help with the overcrowding issues on subways.
"You don't want to inundate a neighborhood, you don't want to inundate a community, but what you want to be able to do is to spread it around, and we're a large enough system to do that," said Joe Lhota, MTA Chairman. "You also want to understand a lot of those things can be done in a six-month time frame or less than that."
Officials say to work will mean month-long closures for most of the subway stations.
However, at Penn Station the Seventh and Eighth Avenue lines will remain open and in-service for the repair.
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