The south end of the platform at Albany Station remained torn up on Dec. 4, 2022.
Construction has tied up about half of the passenger platform at Albany Station since September. The project continues, and completing it looks to be a while off.
Pouring a concrete slab may look simple to someone like me who knows nothing about it. But it’s harder than it looks, says Pat Ryan, owner of TSE Construction of Jefferson. There’s a lot involved, he adds, and then there’s always dealing with the unforeseen.
TSE Construction is the company working on the Albany Amtrak project. The prime contractor nationwide for a number of similar Amtrak station projects is a company named Centennial.
Since September, the subcontractor has been working on building the southern 700 feet of the Albany platform to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). When that portion is done, the company will work on the rest of the 1,200-foot platform.
A ticket agent at the station told me she understood the construction would take about a year. That sounded about right, Ryan said.
Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, is working to carry out a settlement with the federal Justice Department concerning ADA compliance.
“There are currently 387 stations where Amtrak has some type of ADA responsibility, e.g., station building, passenger platform, and parking,” Amtrak said in a progress report issued last June.
The agreement with the Justice Department requires Amtrak to complete 15 station designs per year, and after external appovals are in place for each one, the corporation has 36 months to complete construction.
The June report says that Albany was among 11 stations nationwide for which “design projects were issued for construction” from November 2021 through April 2022.
Albany also was one of three stations where “passenger information display systems” were completed during that period. (Despite its name, that system doesn’t tell you anything about passengers. Instead it tells passeengers and others about when trains are expected to arrive or depart.)
I could not learn anything about the cost of the Albany platform work. But according to the Amtrak progress report in June, Congress in 2021 directed that the passenger railroad spend $75 million a year on improving accessibility.
That evidently includes raising platforms, or building new ones, so train passengers have no trouble getting on an off the trains. (hh)
Epoxy-coated rebar was stored at the station Sunday. It will be used to reinforce the new platform.
Another example of “Rip it up. We’ll worry about fixing it later.”? Same sad song played over and over around here.
^^ nattering nabob of negativism ^^
Probably a MAGA(t) too.
As an example, Pacific at Airport Road. Would you tear up your yard LAST year and not fix it until NEXT year? Ineptness doesn’t necessarily apply only to politics.
The key here is ADA.
I recollect that there’s a height difference between the car deck and the platform.
So, the platform plane needs to come up