Rebuild LIRR Bridge at Post Ave in Westbury

[Amtrak7]

Track 2 was taken out of service at 9pm.

[adamj023]

Any other old rail or car bridges left by the LIRR to replace? I know about the ones in Central Queens, NY near Kew Gardens area which are having work ongoing or scheduled for a later date such as where stores exist over an overpass. Another is an automobile overpass which had work ongoing this year.

Westbury was a major one due to third rail project and bridge clearance. Hopefully that attorney ad doesn’t come back on that bridge. You know, the one with the jingles and a partnership where one attorney sued another. I saw the new overpass isn’t that far from existing third rail so it should help that project move ahead.

[Head-end View]

Third rail already exists to power the trains on existing tracks. You're talking about third track. Not the same thing. Common mistake made by many including the media and politicians.

Ten o'clock this morning the old bridge was still in place, but the crews were working on it.

[REM3Night]

The bridge is gone. They planned to move it at 10 AM - it wouldn't come loose - it finally moved at about 6:15 PM. The fixed end came loose easily but the moving end wouldn't "move". Tonight they are installing pre-cast sections on the abutments.
The vehicle that moved it had 80 wheels on both units.
Ray

[adamj023]

The post avenue bridge happened to be in a growing area population wise near a lot of facilities that require large trucks. It definitely was a key important rail bridge which needed to be completed. Will help in lots of different ways.

The Cherry lane bridge in Carle place has a slightly higher clearance and only two tracks. It also has remnants of the low platform as well. I guess this is one of the other bridges which needs to be done for the main line.

[Amtrak7]

The bridge is gone. They planned to move it at 10 AM - it wouldn't come loose - it finally moved at about 6:15 PM. The fixed end came loose easily but the moving end wouldn't "move". Tonight they are installing pre-cast sections on the abutments.
The vehicle that moved it had 80 wheels on both units.
Ray

I wonder the impact of this delay on the overall weekend schedule...

[MACTRAXX]

The Cherry lane bridge in Carle place has a slightly higher clearance and only two tracks. It also has remnants of the low platform as well. I guess this is one of the other bridges which needs to be done for the main line.

AJ: The Cherry Lane Bridge at the west end of Carle Place Station is in much better condition then
the Post Avenue Bridge was. Cherry Lane is primarily a local road that sees very little truck traffic.
The NICE N22 bus uses Cherry Lane on its route east and west with stops near the station.
In comparison Post Avenue is a busy road that goes through Westbury's downtown north of the
LIRR station from Merrick Avenue and Old Country Road to the Northern State Parkway and then
ends at Jericho Turnpike in Old Westbury.

The Cherry Lane Bridge has large abutments at track level on both sides. The Carle Place low level
platform ended at the staircases leading to Cherry Lane which was a remnant of those platforms.
Carle Place's older low level platforms never extended west out over the Cherry Lane Bridge.
Both the Cherry Lane Bridge and the Glen Cove Road Bridge about one mile west are of similar
design and likely were built at around the same time as one another.

The old Post Avenue Bridge DID contain a narrow remaining segment of Westbury's old low level
platforms that were fenced off when the high-level platforms were first constructed as part of the
1970 Mineola-Huntington Electrification at the staircases leading to Post Avenue.

More then likely a single track bridge will be constructed next to the existing Cherry Lane Bridge
when the third track gets added at Carle Place Station. That work will require one of the 12 car
platforms to be moved over to fit the new track in the existing ROW.

Since this topic is about LIRR bridges I will add mention to the Meadowbrook Parkway Bridge
west of Carle Place - that bridge was built at an angle on the south side to accommodate a long-
removed freight siding that began literally on the bridge. With the addition of the third track it
will be interesting to see if a single track bridge gets added on one side or a "wedge" gets built
to even out the bridge for the third track. This bridge should not need to be replaced outright.

MACTRAXX

[newkirk]

I just returned from the Post Ave site and as of 8:30 this morning (Sunday 10/22), the new bridge is NOT in place.

They had to pour concrete for the footings last night. Concrete needs to dry and also cure.

This is going to be razor thin close. Hope tomorrow mornings AM rush hour gets off without a hitch.

Got my fingers crossed !

[adamj023]

With the Cherry lane bridge, it seems easy enough to remove existing bridge and replace it and improve clearance as well rather than add another track.

We will see what happens when the project is announced. I don’t recall if plans were drawn up already.

I do agree the bridge clearance is slightly higher and road is less congested though but for all these years the Post Avenue bridge had more truck traffic and a worse clearance.

Ellison Avenue was neglected for years which is not far away where bridge was in poor shape and that road had growing usage on it. Post Avenue wasn’t in imminent danger of collapse but it was designed with poor clearance and didn’t have the ability to add the third track so they fixed all the issues with a new replacement.

Looks like LIRR fixed up a lot so far including the worst parts of the system.

[adamj023]

I just returned from the Post Ave site and as of 8:30 this morning (Sunday 10/22), the new bridge is NOT in place.

They had to pour concrete for the footings last night. Concrete needs to dry and also cure.

This is going to be razor thin close. Hope tomorrow mornings AM rush hour gets off without a hitch.

Got my fingers crossed !

I was thinking a weekend was plenty of time with time to spare. Apparently the workers are just using all the allotted time. Bridge should be in place by tomorrow morning as that is the last piece to complete. Worst case scenario isn’t bad and yes we will see the finished bridge on Monday even if it isn’t completed by peak A.M.

I agree that post Avenue was more important to fix on the main line and was an issue. The main line had neglected infrastructure and is widely used by vehicular and train traffic alike and is seeing increased usage.
.

[Morisot]

I watched for about 5 hours yesterday. Those people worked very hard! The job they did was awesome!

I saw a couple of trains, carrying hundreds of people over that bridge, around 9PM Friday night. (The last train was scheduled at 11 PM!) So, between 11 PM Friday night and 7 PM Saturday night they had to cut the tracks and the 3rd rail (high voltage electricity) and sever tons of concrete and steel to slide the old bridge south, on a narrow road, and then move the whole thing at a right angle and delicately place it into the station parking lot ---- leaving the surrounding area in a condition that, with some furious clean-up, they could truck-in and hoist (with a crane the height of a tall apartment building) huge, precast abutments and bolt them onto the understructure that they have been working on all these months.

And then they could do the delicate right-angle dance step in the other direction and move the tons of the new bridge that they had constructed in the parking lot and slide it into place (around 1 PM today, Sunday.) Now they have until 4 AM Monday morning to align, connect, and fill everything they have to, to allow the trains to resume running.

It is amazing what they can accomplish in such a TIGHT TIME LINE! (And it's like surgery --- you want everyone who may be needed to tend to your circumstances to be there, while the operation is going on.)

[Amtrak7]

I watched for about 5 hours yesterday. Those people worked very hard! The job they did was awesome!

I saw a couple of trains, carrying hundreds of people over that bridge, around 9PM Friday night. (The last train was scheduled at 11 PM!) So, between 11 PM Friday night and 7 PM Saturday night they had to cut the tracks and the 3rd rail (high voltage electricity) and sever tons of concrete and steel to slide the old bridge south, on a narrow road, and then move the whole thing at a right angle and delicately place it into the station parking lot ---- leaving the surrounding area in a condition that, with some furious clean-up, they could truck-in and hoist (with a crane the height of a tall apartment building) huge, precast abutments and bolt them onto the understructure that they have been working on all these months.

And then they could do the delicate right-angle dance step in the other direction and move the tons of the new bridge that they had constructed in the parking lot and slide it into place (around 1 PM today, Sunday.) Now they have until 4 AM Monday morning to align, connect, and fill everything they have to, to allow the trains to resume running.

It is amazing what they can accomplish in such a TIGHT TIME LINE! (And it's like surgery --- you want everyone who may be needed to tend to your circumstances to be there, while the operation is going on.)

Last train on Track 2 shortly before 9pm
Last train on Track 1 12:15am

One track scheduled to reopen by 12:45am
Both tracks scheduled to be open by 3:50am

Lots of prep was done in the middays before. One report was that the third rail was removed over the structure and the rails cut during that time, with bolted joint bars in the interim.

[adamj023]

I agree with you completely. MTA has a strict timeline so not to disturb peak commuters which was in effect since the start of the project. A worst case scenario would have meant it would have eaten into A.M. commute if something really unforeseen happen. MTA has done some quick work although in some cases like second avenue subway there were a lot of glitches in the rollout, hence quality control issues because of a tight schedule.

Bridges have been good so far and on schedule like Colonial Avenue, Ellison Avenue and the like. Post Avenue will help with lots of issues including third track capacity improvements, preventing truck incidents which play havok to traffic flow under the bridge and to passing trains allowing traffic to flow more smoothly for everyone. Only downside was limited traffic disruptions and taking up space to build the bridge which I believe took away some parking spots.

The mainline area by this Post Avenue and by Ellison Avenue were neglected for too long considering population growth in those communities including new residential construction and increased traffic for retailers and commercial and industrial areas and the like.

The MTA should have done Post Avenue earlier since I have seen the traffic flow and capacity In the region and it was a well known issue for a long time. But as we know the whole Main line is now set to get improvements over time including Westbury station which is getting improvements as well. Better late than never plus as time goes on traffic continually gets worse and worse at all levels.

It sure isn’t fun getting stuck because of a truck strike when you are on a train either on the bridge or approaching it causing delays, Or being stuck in traffic because of a truck driver which didn’t understand the bridge clearance.

Fortunately those issues are going to be over forever. This one project is going to save a lot of time for lots of people.

[Head-end View]

As of 3pm today, the new bridge was in-place! And crews working like beavers to get the rest of the job done. They will also have to clear all the dirt and debris off the roadway by morning to reopen Post Ave.

And as I stated previously, I'm betting that the new bridge, despite being two feet higher, will get struck partly due to the road incline on the north side. We'll see!

[Amtrak7]

And as I stated previously, I'm betting that the new bridge, despite being two feet higher, will get struck partly due to the road incline on the north side. We'll see!

Are you saying that due to the incline, the shortest distance between bridge and ground is actually less than 14 feet?