MTA Long Island Rail Road reminds customers planning to travel from Port Washington Station this weekend that the Haven Ave. commuter parking lot will be shut down so the LIRR can remove the closed Haven Avenue pedestrian overpass, shuttered since April for safety reasons.
The parking lot will be closed with commencement of work tonight at midnight and remain closed through Sunday night. The 48-hour parking lot closure is necessary due to the size of the pedestrian bridge being removed and the equipment required for accomplishing the task. The work will be completed and the parking lot reopened in time for the Monday morning rush. Train service is not scheduled to be impacted during the work.
The Haven Ave. overpass was closed for safety reasons in April and its removal will be followed by the temporary extension of the remaining pedestrian bridge on the east side of the station to provide access to all platforms. The temporary structure will be built with modular, pre-fabricated materials and is expected to be fully installed and open in September.
As for a long-term remedy, the LIRR is continuing to talk to Town of North Hempstead and community leaders about a plan that would extend two tracks at the station and replace the pedestrian bridges as part of a larger project to improve LIRR service for Port Washington while updating the station and getting it ready for the opening of East Side Access.
Once East Side Access is complete, the LIRR plans to give Port Washington commuters a choice of services, with direct trains to Grand Central Terminal, as well as continuing direct service to Penn Station. To do that, the LIRR needs to be able to store additional trains at Port Washington station so they are in the proper location for the beginning of the morning rush hour.
