{"id":307285,"date":"2026-07-28T01:50:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/307285\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T01:50:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:50:24","slug":"mta-completes-work-on-critical-metro-north-corridor-through-harlem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/307285\/","title":{"rendered":"MTA completes work on critical Metro-North corridor through Harlem"},"content":{"rendered":"

After nearly three years of work, the MTA\u2019s overhaul of the Park Avenue Viaduct \u2014 which stretches from E. 103rd St. to E. 132nd, carrying Metro-North trains north from Grand Central Terminal \u2014 is complete.<\/p>\n

Gov. Hochul joined MTA honchos to ceremonially hammer in four golden clips, affixing new rail to a new bridge just north of the 125th St. station in Harlem Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an extraordinary day,\u201d Hochul said while wearing a hardhat.<\/p>\n

MTA Chairman Lieber said the 133-year-old, four-track line was discovered to have major structural deficits during an inspection prior to the agency\u2019s most recent capital budget request<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you subject concrete and steel to water, salt and chemicals for 100-plus years, stuff happens,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it was happening fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe view north from the tracks near the 125th St. station of the Metro-North Railroad is pictured Monday, July 27, 2026. Over 12,000 feet of rails and nearly 200 bridges were replaced over the past three years as part of an effort to rehabilitate the Park Ave. Viaduct, which carries trains north out of Grand Central Terminal. (Evan Simko-Bednarski \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Rather than shut down the line in its entirety, the MTA continued operation over two tracks at a time while using giant gantry cranes to lift large pre-fabricated bridges into place on the adjacent tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cDropping panels of brand new structure into place on the weekends \u2014 it was amazing to watch,\u201d Lieber said.<\/p>\n

In total, some 196 bridge structures and over 12,600 feet of railroad were replaced during weekend work, without shutting down service into or out of Grand Central.<\/p>\n

The line, which carries the overwhelming majority of Metro-North service, carries some 260,000 passengers a day, Hochul said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot one of them felt a moment of disruption,\u201d the governor said. \u201cOur team at MTA figured out a path forward to do [the work] just on weekends and shave off years and millions and millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gov.Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks with reporters at the 125th St. Station of the Metro-North Railroad Monday, July 27, 2026. (Evan Simko-Bednarski \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to restore people\u2019s faith in government again,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cIt\u2019s been shattered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want them to not give up hope, despite all the insanity coming out of Washington, that here in the state we\u2019re going to do things in the right way,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cI want to make sure that they know I\u2019m fighting to protect their wallets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project, which had initially been conceived of as an eight-year, $960 million project, was winnowed down to a $765 million project with the gantry approach, originally slated for completion in 2027.<\/p>\n

Though some cleanup work remains \u2014 and New Yorkers will still see at least one set of yellow gantry cranes overhead for a few more weeks \u2014 officials said the work has been completed months ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After nearly three years of work, the MTA\u2019s overhaul of the Park Avenue Viaduct \u2014 which stretches from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,85,267,9,24,264,10,12,63,129,131,130,608],"class_list":["post-307285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307285","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=307285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}