The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board has approved a contract for the design and construction of a new bridge to replace the deteriorated 102 year old span carrying the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) tracks over Post Avenue at the Westbury station. The contract for the bridge reconstruction was awarded to Halmar International Inc. for their proposal of $9.7 million for the project, which was $1.6 million below the LIRR’s cost estimate.
The new bridge will increase the clearance to 14 feet above the roadway, two feet and two inches higher than the current clearance. This is expected to improve train service by reducing the number of instances in which over-height trucks strike the bridge, resulting in train delays. The bridge has been struck by trucks between five and nine times per year in each of the past six years.
“With the award of this contract, we’re working to improve Main Line train service with a modern bridge with a higher clearance that will reduce bridge strikes, and the train delays that can result,” said Patrick A. Nowakowski, LIRR president. “And by using the design-build contracting method, we’re doing this in the most efficient and fastest way possible.”
New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has asked the MTA to use “design-build” contract whenever possible to reduce the length of time it takes to complete construction projects. Under this type of contract, the same firm that designs a project also builds it to the specifications it has designed.
The new bridge will also be able to accommodate a third Main Line track, in line with both other infrastructure improvements in the corridor and with Governor Cuomo's proposed LIRR Expansion project.
LIRR officials said the reconstruction work would require one weekend train service outage on the Main Line, projected for October 2017. The railroad has managed similar weekend service suspensions, most recently for the new Ellison Avenue Bridge along the same route in Westbury.