Work on Main St Crossing in Mineola

Was in the area earlier this evening, and noticed there was a lot of construction activity around the Main St crossing. MTA police had several streets in the vicinity blocked off, though trains were still running as usual. Upon further inspection, it looks like the entire crossing has been taken out. Is this crossing being eliminated, or is it merely the first step of rehabbing the crossing? And also, why would such work be taking place during the rush on a summer Friday evening?

Though I think closing the crossing is a good idea, its probably being rehabbed. This is the last Main Line crossing with rubber pads, although it has previously been said on this forum that concreting it would be difficult because of the switch points. Don't know how its being done...

No no no, this is a MAJOR cut through street and it would be a hassle if they cut it off. It is as difficult of a crossing to maintain compared to any other, but it's still needed to ease traffic in the area..

lirr415 wrote:No no no, this is a MAJOR cut through street and it would be a hassle if they cut it off. It is as difficult of a crossing to maintain compared to any other, but it's still needed to ease traffic in the area..

How often is it actually open for road traffic to cross? During the PM Peak I believe it's opened for a little more than 10 minutes every hour.

NH2060 wrote:

lirr415 wrote:No no no, this is a MAJOR cut through street and it would be a hassle if they cut it off. It is as difficult of a crossing to maintain compared to any other, but it's still needed to ease traffic in the area..

How often is it actually open for road traffic to cross? During the PM Peak I believe it's opened for a little more than 10 minutes every hour.

When I take the train through there I've never seen a lot of traffic, even rush hours. On the other hand, Willis Ave is quite busy.

Just because the crossing is occupied for much of the rush-hour doesn't mean it isn't used by a lot of vehicular and pedestrian traffic the rest of the day. When I worked in that area for 25 years, I walked across it countless times at all hours of the day. The area would suffer if this crossing was closed down. The LIRR had better just be rebuilding it.

Walked across it today. Weird. I'm not sure what they did there, but they did not repave with concrete. It looks like the old rubber pads were just put back in place. So does anyone know what this project was about?

The mechanism for the movable frogs not to mention all the associated nuts and bolts on the diamond crossing are under those pads.
Must have been fun to service when the interlocking was manual which is was up until the 80's.