New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has announced that workers began installing the first sections of rail on the $388 million Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) Double Track Project. The project involves building a second track over an 18-mile section of the LIRR line between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma stations.
Ridership on the LIRR’s Ronkonkoma Branch has doubled in the last 25 years, reaching more than 48,000 each weekday. With one track along the 18-mile section of the line, the LIRR can only operate a limited number of trains and if one train becomes disabled, all other trains (east and west) have no way around the problem.
“The Double Track Project is the key to improving service reliability and on-time performance on one of the LIRR’s busiest branches by allowing us to increase service during off-peak and weekend periods,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast. “The MTA is investing billions of dollars in this and other LIRR infrastructure improvements and using an innovative design-build process that gets the job done faster. This commitment is sure to pay dividends by making Long Island more competitive and more convenient long into the future.”
The first phase of the project includes four miles of new track between Ronkonkoma and Central Islip and cost $138 million, which is funded in the MTA’s 2010-2014 Capital Program. Phase 2 of the project will extend the second track another 12.6 miles to Farmingdale at a $250 million cost, which is included in the MTA’s proposed 2015-2019 Capital Program. The LIRR hopes to finish this project in 2019.
Last week, LIRR President Patrick A. Nowakowski was joined by State Senators Phil Boyle and Thomas Croci, other local elected officials and Long Island business and labor leaders for the ceremonial placement of the first section of rail near the Pond Road railroad crossing in Ronkonkoma.
“The four-mile stretch between Ronkonkoma and Central Islip is the first leg of the Double Track Project that will ultimately bring half-hourly, off-peak service to the Ronkonkoma Branch, improve service reliability and support economic growth by constructing a second track 18 miles to Farmingdale,” said Nowakowski. “When complete, east and westbound trains will operate simultaneously between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma. This will mean better reverse peak service to help spur the growth of employment centers on Long Island.”
“Anytime we can increase reliability, productivity and efficiency for our commuting public it is a step in the right direction. Kudos to the MTA and LIRR for taking this innovative and economically savvy step to increase rail service in this, the busiest hub of the LIRR,” Senator Phil Boyle said.
On any given day, between 50 and 75 construction workers are laboring on the Double Track Project. By the time the job is done, the LIRR estimates Double Track will have injected close to $100 million into the Long Island economy and created as many as 1,000 new jobs.
The design and engineering firms STV and AECOM were chosen by the LIRR to plan and carry out the Double Track Project. Skanska USA Civil, a civil engineering and infrastructure contractor, and Posillico, Inc. are the contractors responsible for preparing the new right of way for track installation and new retaining walls.