{"id":302942,"date":"2026-07-22T16:03:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/302942\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T16:03:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:03:27","slug":"brooklyns-borough-hall-subway-station-is-now-fully-ada-accessible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/302942\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn’s Borough Hall subway station is now fully ADA accessible"},"content":{"rendered":"

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN \u2014 After more than two years of construction, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Wednesday that one of New York City\u2019s oldest subway stations is now fully compliant with the American Disability Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn Borough Hall station now features three new elevators that connect the street, mezzanine and platform levels for the 2, 3 and 4, 5 lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheThe 2 and 3 trains, and the 4 and 5 in the Manhattan direction only, have previously been accessible via an elevator in Columbus Park, shown here. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

One of the new elevators, connecting the street level to the mezzanine, is located on Joralemon Street, on the south side of Brooklyn Borough Hall. Two other new elevators connect the mezzanine to the subway platforms.<\/p>\n

The $106 million project is about more than just adding elevators. In an exclusive interview with the Brooklyn Eagle, MTA Construction and Development President Jamie Torres-Springer described the agency\u2019s accomplishments and challenges at the historic station, and revealed some of the behind-the-scenes issues the agency faced in modernizing a subway station built at the turn of the 20th century.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheThe subway construction under Joralemon Street required propping up Borough Hall, which shares a wall. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Committed to making stations accessible\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a project that\u2019s bringing full accessibility to a major Brooklyn hub,\u201d Torres-Springer told the Eagle. Brooklyn\u2019s Downtown Business District is one of the city\u2019s top business districts, and Borough Hall is the fourth busiest subway station in Brooklyn, with an average of 21,143 weekday riders, he said.<\/p>\n

While the 2- and 3-train section of the station has long been accessible via an elevator in Columbus Park, only the 4 and 5 trains to Manhattan were accessible. These latest renovations bring accessibility to the 4 and 5 trains in both directions.<\/p>\n

\"ThisThis mosaic and subway tile wall has been meticulously restored. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Making a station ADA accessible is not just about providing an elevator to get folks down to the platform, he said. \u201cWe also have to make the whole, what we call \u2018path of travel,\u2019 ADA accessible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That means that someone who\u2019s using a mobility device like a wheelchair has to be able to get from the street down to the train, and then be able to get onto the train. To do that, MTA creates an \u201cADA boarding area\u201d on the platform, where the platform level lines up exactly with the opening of the train, with minimal gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in order to do that, because the platform was so old, we had to replace almost the whole platform on both sides,\u201d Torres-Springer said.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Borough Hall subway station opened on Jan. 9, 1908 as the first subway uniting the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, according to this restored plaque. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

And that was just part of the job. As one of the oldest stations in the system, Borough Hall had \u201ca huge slate of good-repair issues,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point (in 2018), the ceiling fell in<\/a>. That was because of the failure of the waterproofing and some of the system elements,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so that meant there was actually a lot more structural work, a whole lot of ceiling, column and girder work.\u201d This included redoing the waterproofing and replacing the entire ceiling, and paving the road surface above the station with protective layers to prevent water infiltration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ThisThis plaque and restored mosaic commemorate the first Rapid Transit Railroad constructed in Brooklyn, completed in 1908. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, doing construction under Joralemon Street required propping up Borough Hall in the process, \u201cwhich was a really complicated activity,\u201d Torres-Springer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to demolish the stair entrance that is adjacent to Borough Hall, on the north side of Joralemon Street, and rebuild that stair and add the elevator, which is there now,\u201d he said. \u201cBut that shared a wall with what was holding up Borough Hall. And so a lot of work was required to make sure everything got held up while we did all this construction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DetailDetail from a mosaic by artist ruby onyinyechi amanze, titled \u201cMay Your Road Be Light and Fun.\u201d Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

Historic restoration, new contemporary mosaic\u00a0<\/p>\n

The project also includes the historic restoration of 118-year-old wall mosaics, and the replacement of broken and missing subway tiles on the 4 and 5 platform. \u201cWe restored the historic design of the station,\u201d Torres-Springer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To cap it off, a 110-foot-long mosaic by artist ruby onyinyechi amanze, titled \u201cMay Your Road Be Light and Fun,\u201d was installed in the passageway connecting the\u00a02,3 and 4,5 subway lines. The work, commissioned by MTA Arts & Design, repeats several motifs, including a leopard-human hybrid, a space alien and the themes of architecture, pool, bike and paper.<\/p>\n

\"DetailDetail from a mosaic by artist ruby onyinyechi amanze, titled \u201cMay Your Road Be Light and Fun.\u201d Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really beautiful piece of artwork,\u201d Torres-Soringer said. \u201cIt\u2019s really improved the look and feel of the station.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is still some work to be done on restoring the historic tile and making other improvements in the station, according to posted signs, but the accessibility part is fully functional.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"DetailDetail from a mosaic by artist ruby onyinyechi amanze, titled \u201cMay Your Road Be Light and Fun.\u201d Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

More convenient for everyone\u00a0<\/p>\n

MTA is holding a press conference at the station on Wednesday to celebrate the ADA completion, and \u201cit so happens we\u2019re celebrating this during Disability Pride Month,\u201d Torres-Springer said. \u201cThe Americans with Disability Act passed in 1990, and if you think back to that time, there were only 15 subway stations that were fully accessible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNow with Borough Hall, we\u2019re bringing that number to 160 across the city, and we\u2019ve got out 40 of those just in the last few years. We\u2019ve really ramped up how much work we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OneOne of Borough Hall station\u2019s new elevators on the mezzanine level. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

In Brooklyn alone, there are 169 subway stations, and 43 of them are currently accessible. Of these, 17 became accessible just since 2020, Torres-Springer said. \u201cSo we\u2019ve done almost half of the stations that are accessible in the last few years.\u201d Another 12 stations are in construction, he said, crediting a \u201cbetter, faster, cheaper approach<\/a>\u201d at the MTA. \u201cBut the point is, once we\u2019re just finished with what\u2019s in construction right now, about a third of Brooklyn stations will be ADA accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA mosaic at the Borough Hall station as it appeared in 2015. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n

These accessibility upgrades will benefit a wide variety of transit riders, he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not just focusing on people with disabilities \u2026 but also making the system more convenient for parents of young kids, or seniors who have trouble getting around.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a parent himself, Torres-Springer said he has memories of \u201chauling strollers or small kids down those stairs, and it\u2019s incredibly difficult.\u201d The accessibility upgrades \u201cenable us to keep everybody mobile, and that\u2019s something that we\u2019re committed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA new elevator on Joralemon Street connects to the Borough Hall subway station\u2019s mezzanine level. Brooklyn Borough Hall can be seen rear left. Photo: Mary Frost\/Brooklyn Eagle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN \u2014 After more than two years of construction, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Wednesday that one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[30678,98,13005,100,99,3935,5330,9,24,5325,63,615],"class_list":["post-302942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-ada","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-borough-hall","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-jamie-torres-springer","tag-metropolitan-transportation-authority-mta","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-no-paywall","tag-nyc","tag-subway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}