Ellison Avenue bridge replacement

Photo(facing north) April 13, 2015. Ellison Avenue will be closed starting April 15, 2015

I can't count how many times my Dad has driven over that bridge in the late 1990's. Even with great shocks, we all went OUCH when we hit one of those plates, and one time while we were running, we hit a plate with our feet while not paying attention and it felt like our teeth were going to fall out of our gums.

The bridge was closed down this morning on schedule. Detours are in place.

The Village held several informational meetings.
One thing that was mentioned in respect in how long that the request took is that the original request was by telegraph.
The news said that the bridge was last replaced in 1941 - of course it was refurbished (if that is the correct term) several times since then.

I bet the highway dept. was wondering what happened to those plates.

May 16-17 and Oct 25-25, Main Line outage for demolition & construction.

All branches see schedule changes, not just those directly affected.

Another interesting fact about this bridge is that a severe weight limit was put in place some years back which prohibited many trucks from using it. This included fire trucks which caused the Westbury Fire Dept. to have to use congested Post. Ave. instead as a response route to the Roosevelt Field area. A real pain.

Head-end View wrote:Another interesting fact about this bridge is that a severe weight limit was put in place some years back which prohibited many trucks from using it. This included fire trucks which caused the Westbury Fire Dept. to have to use congested Post. Ave. instead as a response route to the Roosevelt Field area. A real pain.

Hopefully this new bridge will allow that, and the bridge will not have a parabolic look, that it is just straight flat.

The bridge has been in rough shape for many years. Although the weight limit signs were clearly visible, I have often seen trucks violating the prohibition. Especially after Hurricane Sandy, the huge log hauling trucks regularly traversed the bridge on their way to this temporary collection spot at Eisenhower Park.

The special schedules for the entire system are now posted.

It looks like they just took the Roslyn Road timetables and added 8702/8703, etc. Some of the minor things that were changed since then (i.e. 8715 not bypassing Speonk anymore) were overlooked.

The reduction of Babylon service to hourly, if not absolutely necessary to run the Ronkonkoma Z-trains, will probably lead to some ugly crowding issues...

MattAmity90 wrote:and the bridge will not have a parabolic look, that it is just straight flat.

Unlikely - I haven't found the design yet, but the description states:

The new proposed span would have a clearance of 18 feet. The LIRR is seeking a waiver from the New York State Department of Transportation for the 18 feet clearance, which would avoid any impacts to adjacent properties.

18ft clearance from span to rail would allow Plate F freight cars. Is the current clearance 18ft, and does NYS DOT require a larger (say Plate H) clearance normally for new rail bridges?

Hmm, didn't realize that Posillico is involved:

The Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority today awarded a contract for the design and construction of a new bridge over the railroad tracks at Ellison Avenue in Westbury to Posillico Civil Inc., a Farmingdale, L.I.-based construction firm.
The $7 million contract was awarded to Posillico after the LIRR determined that the firm’s proposal was the best among those submitted by three companies. The project is scheduled to get underway in January. Completion is expected in 2016.

Amtrak7 wrote:The special schedules for the entire system are now posted.

It looks like they just took the Roslyn Road timetables and added 8702/8703, etc. Some of the minor things that were changed since then (i.e. 8715 not bypassing Speonk anymore) were overlooked.

The reduction of Babylon service to hourly, if not absolutely necessary to run the Ronkonkoma Z-trains, will probably lead to some ugly crowding issues...

A7 and Everyone:

The special schedules for ALL lines on 5/16 and 5/17 are also available at Penn Station...

From Mineola to Hicksville a bus "bridge" will be in operation on those days for Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma Branch riders...

This bridge demolition looks to be interesting - hopefully there are pictures contributed here...

MACTRAXX

No good vantage point these days!

MACTRAXX wrote: The special schedules for ALL lines on 5/16 and 5/17 are also available at Penn Station...

I'm surprised they put the paper ones out already - there's the Montauk busing this weekend and a Port Wash busing next Saturday that people could confuse the Ellison schedules with. A giant service advisory sign at this stage should be enough.

Could someone explain how this "Appendix S" system works? Is it just to save them the difficulty of putting out a giant trackwork program?

Any diagrams or drawings of the replacement bridge? Just curious how it will look...