Seven months after NYC was walloped by Hurricane Sandy, A train service to the Rockaways will finally resume. The superstorm flooded the Broad Channel and Rockaway Park-Beach 116th Street stations, washing out 1,500 feet of tracks and destroying miles of signal, power and communications wires. Since the storm, the workers have been making rebuilding the tracks on the North Channel Bridge, which was completely submerged during the surge.
According to the MTA, the new work included "installing a corrugated marine steel sheet wall 30 feet into the soft soil of over two miles of the right-of-way along Jamaica Bay to protect the track against future washouts and ensure the line is ready to handle future coastal storms." Overall, the storm caused an estimated $4.755 billion worth of damage to the MTA system, as railroad and subway lines, vehicular tunnels, subway stations and power and signal equipment were inundated with corrosive salt water.
The first train to leave Howard Beach for the Rockaways tomorrow will depart at 10:30 a.m., and it will be special: a vintage R1/R9 subway cars first put into service in the 1930s (see below). The train will run to the Rockaway Park-Beach 116th Street Station where a ceremony will take place to mark the restoration of service. Normal A/S service to and from the Rockaways will resume at noon.
(MTA)
