MTA completes accessibility upgrades at Church Avenue Station

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) completed the station and accessibility upgrades at the Church Avenue B, Q subway station in Brooklyn. Upgrades include a new entrance mid-block on East 18 Street, complete with two new street to platform elevators, two new stairways, a new fare array and a new transfer bridge with a customer information screen. In addition to the new elevators, crews made accessibility upgrades to the platform edge to install new boarding areas and tactile edge strips.  

“I am so proud of the way that we are knocking out these ADA projects, five times as fast as our MTA predecessors,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “Every New Yorker deserves to be able to use our amazing subway system. It's a lifeline and an affordability solution, and there is a special link between affordability and the populations we serve with accessibility projects.”  

According to the MTA, crews constructed a new entrance, which houses two new elevators and two staircases, a new customer transfer bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn-bound platforms with a new customer information screen and a new fare array complete with three new turnstiles and two new exit gates. Other accessibility improvements included reconstruction of platform edges to install new ADA raised boarding areas and yellow tactile edge strip along the platform length.   

“Church Avenue is our sixth newly accessible station this year, and we were able to create an entirely new entrance with minimal disruptions to subway service,” said MTA Construction & Development President Jamie Torres-Springer. “The project’s public-private partnership is a great example of the innovative procurement methods that the new MTA is implementing to deliver accessibility better, faster and cheaper.”  

Throughout the station, crews upgraded communications and electrical systems and performed state—of-good-repair work on structural steel and concrete. The station also received state-of-good-repair work as part of the MTA’s Revive program. The Church Avenue B, Q station serves nearly 10,000 weekday daily riders.    

New York City Transit (NYCT) President Demetrius Crinchlow notes that “providing accessible stations is key to ensuring NYCT can provide safe, efficient and reliable service for all riders and the upgrades made at Church Avenue do just that.” 

The MTA notes that approximately 30% of the project budget was awarded to Disadvantaged Business Enterprise firms. The design-build team for the Church Avenue Station upgrades includes Urbahn Architects, Dewberry, Forte Construction and EAE Halmar International, and the elevator manufacturer and installer is Otis Elevator.   

Church Avenue is the second newly accessible station to open in ADA Package 3. That bundle of accessibility upgrades is the first in MTA history to be awarded using a public-private partnership model, which requires that the contractor finance the project with equity and bonds to be reimbursed in installments only if the project is built and maintained to MTA standards. The package encompasses accessibility upgrades at 13 subway stations throughout Brooklyn and Queens. 

“For me, accessibility means giving me the ability to get out of my house every day in the morning, so I can go to work, go to school, go to my doctor's appointment, but also to enjoy all that New York has to offer,” said MTA Chief Accessibility Officer Quemuel Arroyo. “With this project, we are telling all New Yorkers that they belong.”