LIRR continues to hit milestones on expansion project

Written by RT&S Staff
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Crews on the LIRR Expansion Project successfully installed a new bridge and underpass tunnel over the weekend.
LIRR

MTA Construction & Development (C&D), the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and design-builder 3rd Track Constructors successfully installed a new LIRR bridge and underpass tunnel at New Hyde Park Road in New Hyde Park. This was the second major milestone for the LIRR Expansion Project in just two weeks, following the replacement of the Glen Cove Road bridge.

The grade crossing was closed in February and over the past several months crews installed soldier piles, excavated for the undergrade roadway and constructed the new 3,550-ton train bridge and tunnel structure on the south side of the tracks in preparation for the installation.

This past weekend during a main line service outage, crews removed the existing LIRR tracks and systems at New Hyde Park Road to allow for materials supporting the tracks to be excavated. Following excavation, the bridge was pushed into place utilizing a system that included 20 hydraulic jacks to move the structure into place. Each jack has a capacity of 250 tons for a total of 5,000 tons of total jacking force. The jacking system is capable of pushing the bridge a distance of 20 in. with each stroke. After each push of 20 in., the jacking system was reset a total of 30 times to move the 75- by 40-ft bridge 50 ft into its final position.

Taking full advantage of the service outage on the main line crews also demolished the pedestrian bridge at the east end of Mineola station. The bridge will be replaced beginning in late 2021.

Other activity during the service outage included: final surfacing of the recently installed New Nassau 1 Interlocking; installation of track switch elements at New Nassau 1; installation of precast sound walls; platform construction at Merillon Avenue station; construction of a gantry crane in preparation of new Nassau 3 Interlocking installation; concrete pouring at Carle Place; and Cherry Lane bridge waterproofing, among other work.

Roadway construction at the New Hyde Park Road undergrade crossing will be completed by Labor Day weekend, when the underpass is scheduled to open—just seven months after the roadway was closed. Last summer, undergrade crossings were completed at Covert Avenue in New Hyde Park and Urban Avenue in New Cassel. Excavation work is currently underway for the School Street undergrade crossing on the Westbury/New Cassel border.

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