LIRR Mainline Third Track Project

I wasn’t being specific to any towns or areas. Growth is occuring all across the line in terms of vehicular traffic and train usage which is way up so closing the crossings, modifying the stations and adding the third track benefits everyone equally whether you use the LIRR or a vehicle. The NIMBY’s fortunately didn’t prevent this project. Mineola has seen growth. But so has multiple stations on the main line and other lines that feed into it as well.

adamj023 wrote:Project benefits everyone. They can fix the subways and build the third track at the same time. Lhota is absolutely correct. As having used the mainline myself and seeing the growth in the area, the third track needed to be done, in fact it should have been done earlier at a cheaper cost. But the MTA is the MTA and the project will take a few years before completion of a project which made sense to do years earlier.

This project has so many benefits too numerous to name including needed work across the mainline.

Lot of good information from the MTA Press Release from December 13th.

http://www.mta.info/news/2017/12/13/mta ... ernization" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board has approved a design-build contract with 3rd Track Constructors (3TC), to complete the design and construction of the crucial Long Island Rail Road Expansion Project. Several expert firms have joined together to form 3TC, including Dragados USA, Inc., John P. Picone Inc., CCA Civil, Inc., and Halmar International LLC, with Stantec as the design professional, as well as Cameron Engineering, and Rubenstein Associates leading the community outreach team.

The approval of the 3TC contract marks another important milestone for the LIRR Expansion Project, a signature initiative of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s, and part of his comprehensive, interconnected plan to improve transit and transportation throughout the region.

This initiative, which blends capital expansion and state-of-good-repair work, will unlock the full potential of existing LIRR modernization initiatives including East Side Access, Double Track, Jamaica Capacity Improvement Project, and other major investments. This project will provide a state-of-the-art transportation system for Long Island and New York City residents, commuters, and business communities, while laying the foundation for a resurgence of the region’s economic growth.

“Upon its completion, this modernization initiative will provide faster commuting with a more reliable network, and will allow us to keep the railroad in a state-of-good-repair,” MTA Chairman Joseph J. Lhota said. “All too often, major delays on the LIRR are tied to incidents along this corridor. With this investment, Long Islanders and New York City residents alike will be able to avoid the crippling and cascading delays that affect the entire network. This project will transform not only Long Island, but the economy and accessibility of the entire region.”

“These infrastructure improvements were identified as crucial and necessary many years ago, and I am pleased to see that they will soon become a reality,” said LIRR President Pat Nowakowski. “The reliability of our system is the focal point for good service, and with this project, the LIRR will be able to deliver that better than ever for our customers who rely on the railroad for commuting to work and school, and other facets of daily life.”

I agree with adamj023 that this project should have been done earlier/cheaper as was proposed years ago. Unfortunately at that time there was not much public support for the idea and the NIMBY's stopped it. But now some years later, there is considerably more support from the business community and political leaders so Gov. Cuomo was able to push it thru. Better late than never.

Now that the Islanders bid was selected for the Belmont project, LIRR says it is committed to expanding service there but some work needs to be done. They really could use an extra track through through there for trains accessing the station. The original third track plan called for improvements through the Belmont area, right?

Not sure about that. It's already four tracks in that area. The "third track" for the Main-Line was originally going to begin in that vicinity around Bellerose Station. But the current plan is for it not to begin until east of Floral Park Station. So any improvements to the Belmont service will be a separate project.

Came across this in the MTA Board Minutes regarding a February 26th schedule change.

• Main Line, Expansion - One of two main tracks will be out of service midday weekdays, weekends,
and overnights between Queens Interlocking and Divide Interlocking to support the construction of the
Main Line Third Track.

http://web.mta.info/mta/news/books/pdf/ ... R&LIRR.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That's on page 206, for the curious. Not much information on what work is actually being done. I've seen a new retaining wall installed on the north side of the ROW west of Hicksville - presumably station track 1 is being connected to the powered siding just west of the station, and that will become Mainline 3.

Looks like preliminary work before the start of the actual real noticeable buildout. It is essentially shutting down one track during lesser usage periods. This phase of work ends in May which is already in progress. I don’t know specifics except that its shutting down one track on the existing mainline between the two interlockings. It is not about building out a new track or signals or third rail or closing grade crossings and the like.

After this project is done, then the REAL work will essentially begin which will be very noticable.

There might be regular track maintenance going on here too. Single tracking during the mid-day hours in that area is not unusual.

If the Board materials say the outings are for construction of the third track, I do not think regular maintenance is their main purpose. Or would you tell your boss "I am starting highly disruptive job X now" and then just do an everyday job instead, while you are at the centre of attention?

I would expect the project to start off with elimination of vegetation, topographical surveying, relocation of utilities, construction of temporary access roads etc. All these preparatory works can be done easier when the adjacent track is out of service.

Berlintransit, don't take things so literally. One type of work does not exclude the other. My apologies if I implied otherwise. They could be doing all the work you suggest and (gasp!) regular track maintenance at the same time in different locations than the 3rd track work.

Sure they could do that and you already implied it in the first post. My apologies if I was too aggressive here

FWIW, If they take a section of mainline OOS for 3rs track work resulting in Z trains. They likely if need be piggyback other work in the OOS portion of the mainline .
So you could have 3rd party contractors working on the 3rd track ROW prep/clearing then LIRR MW/Signal forces wornif in the existing tracks as may be required.
LIRR does this frequently to maximize work in a outing. One purpose of this is to keep the inconvieaces to a minimum.
So in short. The “3rd track” outage may include subwork on the existing mainline infrastructure both relating to or not relating to the 3rd track.

From looking at the LIRR committee minutes from March 19th on page 43 sounds the preliminary work is going to be utility relocation work, organizing staging areas, clearing and grubbing beginning thIs winter with full construction ramping up by the end of the year.

When I went to Mineola station in the past, the station area was so crowded. A new highrise development project is going up right next door as well. Phillip Eng, the new head of LIRR apparently had a q+a with users of this station just recently.

A third track and expansion of this area is needed along with a new passenger walkway to replace the old one which is in poor shape, where they stripped out the decaying metal and replaced it with wood. It has to be removed for the third track project as well and the new plans show it to be replaced. If the community voted this project down, it would have backed up traffic and led to overcrowding of the trains. The area is getting even more congested than I have ever seen it.

May is almost here and hopefully we will see more good progress on this project. My experience was just based on Mineola, but I know other areas are seeing more traffic as well. I believe this project is more important than the second track project and Harold Interlocking is probably the most important. Penn station work by Amtrak is also important as well.