Washington Heights Subway Station To Close For Months: Reports

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — A Washington Heights subway stations will be shut down for up to six months this year as the Metropolitan Transit Authority conducts aesthetic fixes and installs new technology, the West Side Rag first reported.

The West 163rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue C line station is targeted for the MTA's Enhanced Station Initiative, the West Side Rag reported. The program's goal is to to rehabilitate stations with aesthetic improvements and install new technology such as countdown clocks and LED illuminated handrails, the West Side Rag reported.

Fixes will start sometime this year and are expected to be completed by December, according to an MTA presentation acquired by the West Side Rag.. The MTA did not immediately respond to Patch's messages.

"This is a program that allows us to do essential work to preserve these stations for the next generation," an MTA spokesperson told the West Side Rag. "This will allow us to get in and get out, doing work more quickly over the course of months instead of years."

Three stations on the Upper West Side will also be closed for the Enhanced Station Initiative work.

The MTA recently postponed allocating nearly $213 million to the Enhanced Station Initiative in order to conduct repairs and fixes at eight subway stations. Among these eight stations included two of the city's busiest, the stops at 34th Street-Penn Station on the A/C/E and 1/2/3 lines.

The board voted to table two contracts for the work to give Andy Byford, the new president of New York City Transit, more time to review them. The Enhanced Station Initiative is among $2.5 billion worth of station repairs in the MTA's 2015-2019 Capital Program, MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said.

Read the full West Side Rag story here.

Photo by Google Maps street view