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MTA to ramp up station inspections after ceiling collapse
The MTA will conduct tougher station inspections in the wake of last month’s ceiling collapse at the 181st Street stop on the No. 1 train, transit officials said Tuesday.
Engineers are beefing up NYC Transit’s protocol for station inspections to include new technology that can “spot potentially serious latent defects,” transit spokesman Charles Seaton said. Officials yesterday did not further elaborate.
Currently, inspectors primarily eyeball a station to determine its soundness. After the ceiling collapse on Aug. 16, relying on visual inspections is “obviously inadequate,” NYC Transit President Howard Roberts stated in internal communication Friday.
The collapsed had shuttered the 181st Street station until Monday, and transit officials also had closed the 168th Street station for two consecutive weekends to deal with structural problems in the ceiling. Crews will continue working to replace the bricks at both stations in the coming weeks, and scaffolding will limit the space on platforms. Weekend service is not expected to be disrupted again, a transit spokeswoman said.
Transit advocates are hoping the MTA will start using devices that can detect water damage through sound waves. Water seepage is believed to have played some role in the ceiling collapse, which knocked out service for two weeks.
A 2008 survey of 50 stations by the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA found that more than half had water leaks.
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