The Chambers Street station is now American with Disabilities Act compliant with new elevator installations that took two years to complete and will take customers to the mezzanine while ramps will lead to the J and Z train platforms.
Though the MTA has had a plan in the 2020-2024 capital plan to make nearly all 472 stations in the subway system compatible with all riders, without $12 billion federal funding to get the program back on track, the agency says that this completion is little more than a spot treatment.
Funding for this came from the previous capital plan and the agency is still addressing as only about a quarter of stations are ADA accessible.
“Expanding access to mass transit throughout the city is a priority for the MTA,” said Janno Lieber, President of MTA Construction and Development. “Projects like the one at Chambers Street – and the four other station accessibility projects we have completed in the past five weeks – are at the center of our broader work to transform and modernize the entire subway system, but we can’t achieve them at scale without major support from the federal government.”
Chambers Street, which has been in service for 105 years and always sported a grungy patina, also received a whole other set of upgrades from platform renovations that tightened the gap between trains and the edge 0f the platform itself to fresh coats of paint. New LED lighting has also been installed, according to the MTA.
“When this pandemic ends–and in time, it will–some 30,000 daily customers will benefit from these upgrades each and every day,” said Sarah Feinberg, New York City Transit Interim President. “We will continue working to expand accessibility because customers with disabilities deserve nothing less. I look forward to working with accessibility advocates to make sure our federal elected officials understand that what’s at stake is more projects like the one at Chambers.”
Station facilities and architectural features will undergo continuous improvement throughout 2020, the MTA said, while water mitigation work and infrastructure improvements to platforms, floors and columns can be expected in the future.
