NEW YORK — Ventilation-fan issues are continuing to delay the opening of the Long Island Rail Road’s new Grand Central Madison station in Manhattan, with a January start to operations now in jeopardy.
The New York Daily News reports Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Janno Lieber said Wednesday that a January start is “possible. But I’m not putting a date on it.”
The problem is with a fan that is supposed to bring air to the caverns that house the new LIRR platforms, some 140 feet below Park Avenue. Lieber said one area near entrance from the existing Grand Central lower level has not been to “suck enough air,” as measured in cubic feet per minute. “We are addressing those engineering issues with a variety of tools.”
Otherwise, the new terminal is done, Lieber said. The MTA had aimed to begin service to the new station before the end of 2022, in keeping with a long-standing target for the much-delayed project {see “Grand Central Madison opening pushed back …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 30, 2022}.“It’s a code issue, a safety issue,” Lieber said. “It is as if you had a walk-through of a house that is done, and you could smell the new house, and you could smell the new paint, and they told you there is still a village code inspection that needs to take place.”
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