MTA LIRR breaks ground on $25-million train wash in Babylon, N.Y.
Written by jrood
MTA Long Island Rail Road President Helena Williams and Babylon Mayor Ralph Scordino and other public officials broke ground today on a new $25.5 million train wash facility located in the Village of Babylon. The project, which promises to create between 20 and 30 construction jobs, is being financed with federal stimulus funds through the Federal Transit Administration. The Babylon Train Wash Facility was selected by Governor David Paterson and the MTA as a shovel-ready project that represented the best use of federal stimulus funds.
Gov. Paterson said:
"This is a good example of a recovery project with short-term and long-term
benefits. Besides the boost from spending to build the facility now, its green
design will save money and water. And keeping railroad cars clean means they
will last longer, reducing replacement costs. I thank President Obama and our
entire Congressional delegation for their support of these economic recovery
funds that help to reinvigorate the economy, put people back to work and
improve the quality of our transportation systems throughout the State."
LIRR President Williams
said: "I would like to thank Governor Paterson and the MTA for their vote
of confidence in the LIRR. This new train wash will enable us to clean an
additional 180 cars each day using methods – such as solar power and wastewater
recycling – that will help protect the environment. We are also very grateful
to Mayor Scordino and the Village of Babylon for their cooperation in the
planning of this project and to the Federal Transit Administration for the
funds that will make it a reality."
Important
"green" aspects of the facility will include:
• The filtering,
reconditioning and reusing of more than 70% of wash water.
• Supplemental solar
power energy panels will help operate the electrical lighting and heating for
the train wash equipment building, saving the LIRR an estimated $6,700 a year
on utility costs.
• Storm water will be
collected and released through a leach field, eliminating run-off pollutants
into nearby Sumpwams and Geiger Creeks.
• A separator will
prevent oil and diesel fuel from entering the wastewater system.
• Area wetlands will be
fenced to prevent damage and illicit dumping.
• A new landscape buffer
will be built between the golf course and the train wash.
The Babylon Branch of the
LIRR is the busiest of the LIRR’s 11 branches. The new Train Wash Facility will
be located east of the Babylon LIRR Station, situated between the Babylon Village
golf course and the LIRR tracks leading to the Babylon Train Yard.
When it becomes the
operational in 2012, the LIRR will be able to clean the exteriors of an
additional 180 cars every day. The Railroad currently has one operating train
wash at the entrance to its Ronkonkoma Train Yard.
The new Babylon Train Wash
Facility will consist of two buildings: A masonry equipment building (21 feet x
180 feet) will house the control, wash room, pumps, reclaim/recycle wash water,
waste water treatment system and storage tanks for the train wash. The second
structure will be the train wash bay, a steel/corrugated siding structure (26
feet x 282 feet) consisting of pre-cast track slab sections, concrete
foundations, wash water collection system and the train wash equipment.
