Home Asides Court House Square transfer completion delayed until March

Court House Square transfer completion delayed until March

by Benjamin Kabak

Update (11:47 a.m. Thursday): The long-awaited transfer between the 7 at Court House Square and the G at Court Square in Long Island City is one of those MTA projects that just can’t finish up on time or, seemingly, at all. Initially due for an early 2010 completion, the MTA’s own board materials released in November said the project would open in January of this year while a New York 1 report in December promised a February opening. As February goes zooming past, though, the entrance has shown no signs of opening any time soon, and straphangers are growing antsy.

Today, a source who has been in contact with the line manager of the 7 train informs me that the MTA is now anticipating a “mid-March” opening date. John Hoban, the line manager, says the the work at Court House Square is under the auspicies of a contractor working for Citibank, and the work has yet to be completed. While many who are waiting for the transfer have noted that the staircase appears ready, the MTA and Citibank apparently cannot, due to ADA requirements, open the stairway until the elevators and escalators are ready for service.

The MTA tells me that “quirks” with the testing of the escalators is the primary motivation behind this delay, and they anticipate adhering to the mid-March opening. In the meantime, Queens commuters will just keep waiting for a convenient transfer that never wants to be ready for use.

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9 comments

Eric February 16, 2011 - 3:13 pm

Thanks for the update. So it’ll be ready as soon as the weather starts getting nice again.

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Al D February 16, 2011 - 3:19 pm

There is an entrance to the G that is separate from the escalator transfer just a few yards away, but renovated nonetheless. I would suggest that, at least, it be re-opened immediately as it appears to be completed.

Additionally, there is a design flaw that was quite evident during all this winter weather and subsequent thaw. There is no ‘gutter’ or channel at the bottom of the canopy to control runoff. It just poured onto the street and then froze overnight, creating a dangerous ice condition at the very spot where people walk. They should spend the extra few thousand now and fix this, or just get hit with the multi-million negligence lawsuit later after some poor soul slips and hurts him/herself.

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al February 16, 2011 - 4:21 pm

And its also cheaper to get this done now during construction than later as an addon.

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Jerry February 16, 2011 - 4:54 pm

Ben, thanks for posting this.
I had been wondering about why nothing was announced about this matter this month, after they said it would open in February.

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Jerry February 16, 2011 - 5:02 pm

Coming to think of it, I also wonder when and if they are going to do that minor name change.
They were supposedly going to rename the Court House Sq. station as simply “Court Square”,
a la Broadway-Nassau to Fulton St., or Lawrence St. to Jay St.

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Jerrold February 16, 2011 - 8:09 pm

This issue about station naming also reminds me about Broadway-Lafayette and Bleecker St.
Like, it will be interesting to see if both stations will be called something like “Houston-Lafayette Sts.” after the project is finished.

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John-2 February 16, 2011 - 9:19 pm

The Bleecker Street IRT station’s original Contract 1 section is under historical preservation rules, so those tiles aren’t changing — though the new uptown platform extension or any remodeling on the downtown platform extension probably could be revised to include Houston Street in its name.

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Steve February 16, 2011 - 9:33 pm

I was wondering what was going on with this transfer. I’ve been looking forward to it opening and have noticed that the escalators are still not done. It’s a shame it’s taking this long because it looks like it’s almost done and it’ll be a great transfer. I too hope they rename the & stop Court Square. Hopefully, by mid-March it’ll really be ready and there won’t be any more delays.

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Juan March 14, 2011 - 7:23 am

I was reading your article online just this morning and I need to know a little something, is the Court House Square transfer going to open on Friday March 18th, 2011 at 4:00 PM? Let me know when you’re done, thank you.

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