MTA Says Smith-Ninth Street Subway Station Will Open This Fall

It’s been who live near the Smith-Ninth Street subway station, but F and G train riders who live in the area won’t be waiting too much longer.

On Thursday night, during a Community Board 6 transportation and public safety committee meeting, two officials from Metropolitan Transit Authority said that the station’s rehabilitation project is on schedule for completion this fall.

Andrew Inglesby, the assistant director of government and community relations for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, said that the station did not open as expected last March due to “issues with the contractor.”

But, Inglesby said, the grand opening for the Smith-Ninth Street station is to come soon.

“We still believe we are on schedule to open Smith-Ninth Street by this fall,” Inglesby said. “I know that means until Dec. 31, but we will open that station by then.”

The station was closed on June 20, 2011 for a $32 million renovation, part of the Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation Project, a $275.5 million engineering and construction effort to rehabilitate the elevated steel and concrete Culver Viaduct structure, which both the F and G train lines run along. The MTA officials said the full project will be complete by the end of 2013. 

The Smith-Ninth Street station renovations, which are being done in coordination with the Fourth Avenue Interlocking Signal Modernization, will include a new and expanded street level control house, new architectural metal panel escalator enclosure and rehabilitated stairs and platforms. The station will also have new lighting, public address and CCTV systems. 

Raymond Wong, the construction manager at Smith-Ninth Street, said that they are almost finished with the rehabilitation project.

“As of right now, we put up most of the steel, foundations are in for the control house, the utilities are connected, but we still have to do the exterior finishes, and we still have to do the siding for the escalator enclosure, which will be the signature feature of the station,” Wong said.

Wong also said that the platforms and the upper mezzanine are basically compete. In a month the paneling on the escalator across Ninth Street will be going up.

There will also be a 14-foot tall mosaic in the station as part of the Arts in Transit program.

“When it is all said and done, there will be a ribbon-cutting for the community,” Inglesby said.