The MTA will be suspending LIRR train service from Port Washington to Great Neck on Saturday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to allow workers to prep the Colonial Road Bridge in the Village of Thomaston for demolition in June, officials said Tuesday.
Service along the line will be provided by buses, which will run every hour – reduced from the usual every half hour.
Passengers traveling west who take the train from the Port Washington, Plandome and Manhasset stations will need to get on buses about 25 minutes earlier than they would normally board a train to get to the Great Neck station, where they will be able to board a train
Those traveling east to Manhasset, Plandome and Port Washington will get off their trains at the Great Neck station to board buses, the MTA said.
The 115-year-old Colonial Road Bridge, which is located at the intersection of Colonial Road and Grace Avenue, has been closed to vehicular traffic since March 30.
The bridge will be demolished the weekend of June 20 and 21, MTA LIRR Spokesman Salvatore Arena said, as part of a $24.9 project. The MTA will then spend the next year building a new bridge, making track-level drainage improvements, building a retaining wall and extending an existing pocket track used to turn trains around.
Arena said this weekend lead paint will be removed from the old bridge, and workers will also begin work on a new retaining wall and drainage improvements.
The MTA has said the replacement of the bridge is essential to the East Side Access project, which will bring the LIRR straight into Grand Central Station in Manhattan. The project, which the MTA says is still about seven years away, will cut the travel time of commuters who work on Manhattan’s east side by 20 to 30 minutes when completed.
