Members of the New York City Transit attended a Community Board 5 transportation services meeting April 23 to discuss the Queens phase of their 40-month plan to give the entire M train a makeover beginning next week.
The $43 million project will provide structural steel repair work and overcoat painting to the elevated structure of undergirding the entire train line, beginning with the Queens side of the train.
The construction workers will be based out of a workplace underneath the M line at Madison and Woodward Street in Ridgewood. Their plan is to paint the elevated structure a new coat of “forest green” paint, moving toward Metropolitan Middle Village Station.
“We anticipate though, at least being on the Queens side of the M through the summer. We’ll sort of see where we end up after the summer,” said Lucille Songhai, assistant director of government and community relations for New York City Transit.
In addition to maintaining and repainting the steel structure, the construction crew will be cleaning the area underneath the train, which has become a site of excessive dumping in various spots along the line.
Songhai announced that there are no plans for any changes to the subway service along the line as a result of the repairs.
She also reassured residents that the construction crew will be containing the areas of construction as they are removing the paint in order to mitigate chips of lead paint from scattering into the surrounding area.
“Pretty much every structure in NYC transit owns needs some sort of lead abatement,” Songhai said.
