Construction begins on $570 million Penn Station renovation project
MIDTOWN, Manhattan (WABC) -- Workers began construction Monday on a major renovation project at Penn Station.
The project will add a new entrance on 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue and will also widen the corridor and add new information systems and other amenities.
During the construction, the MTA will close some ticket machines and windows.
The latest round of repairs at Penn Station will force New Jersey Transit to divert some trains to Hoboken Terminal starting Monday to reduce the number of trains that normally go through Penn Station.
For more on all of the changes, CLICK HERE.
To accommodate customers, ticket agents equipped with hand-held ticket-selling devices will be deployed on high-volume ticket-purchasing days, and digital train and track information displays will be placed in key locations.
The $570 million project is expected to take about a year.
"There's going to be a brand new set of escalators and stairways coming right down from Seventh Avenue right into the middle of the Long Island Rail Road corridor," MTA Chief Development Officer Janno Lieber said. "Right now, it's very complicated to get here from Seventh Avenue. You have to go down a set of stairs into the Amtrak area, and now, we're going to make it so you can come directly down."
The historical original Penn Station artwork dating back to circa 1903 will stay, and a Maya Lin original on the ceiling called Eclipsed Time will stick around but be moved.
The original stairwells will also stay, but low ceilings will be removed.
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