Below is a notification the Village received form the MTA/LIRR about a large construction project over the next few weekends in Garden City relating to the Cherry Valley Bridge. There will be no construction impacts to Floral Park from this work, but it will result in service disruption on the Hempstead Line on these weekends. Please see below for more details from the MTA/LIRR and a link from the MTA/LIRR regarding the bus service that will be provided to those travelling east of Floral Park to Hempstead Line stations.




The Long Island Railroad (LIRR) strives to be a good neighbor by keeping you informed of safety and reliability improvements along the Hempstead Branch in the Village of Garden City. We are going to be raising and replacing the Cherry Valley Avenue bridge, our most often struck bridge by vehicular traffic, to the industry standard of 14 feet, and also replacing the Cathedral Avenue grade crossing with a brand-new concrete pad, which will replace the current rubber pad at the crossing. For all these weekends, MTAPD will be present to assist with the road closures and the safe flow of traffic through the Village.
 
All of the bridge raise/replacement weekends will follow the attached Cherry Valley Avenue maintenance and protection of traffic (MPT) plan, while the Cathedral Avenue replacement will follow the Cathedral Avenue MPT plan. The schedule for this work is as follows and is tentative/subject to change as we get closer to these dates and the project progresses.
 

• March 3^rd – March 5^th, first bridge jacking weekend, Cherry Valley Avenue to be closed.
  • The road closure will last from approximately 9pm on March 3^rd to 4am on March 5^th.
     
• March 10^th – March 13^th, second bridge jacking weekend, Cherry Valley Avenue to be closed.
  • The road closure will last from approximately 9pm on March 10^th to 4am on March 13^th.
     
• March 17^th – March 20^th, third bridge jacking weekend, Cherry Valley Avenue to be closed.
  • The road closure will last from approximately 9pm on March 17^th to 4am on March 20^th.
     
• March 24^th – March 27^th, Cathedral Avenue grade crossing weekend, Cathedral Avenue to be closed.
  • The road closure will last from approximately 9pm on March 24^th to 4am on March 27^th.
  • As part of this work, we will also require a 12-hour outage from 11pm on Friday February 24^th to 11am on Saturday February 25^th to prepare the crossing to be replaced.
     
• March 31^st at approximately 9pm – April 3^rd at approximately 4am, installation of the new bridge at Cherry Valley Avenue.
  • The road closure will last from approximately 9pm on March 31^st to 4am on April 3^rd. 
• The weekend of May 6^th will be held as a contingency weekend in case we need additional time to complete this work.

 
For each of these weekends, we will also have a full shutdown of train service on the Hempstead branch between Floral Park and Hempstead and run buses in their stead. Customers are encouraged to check our website and app for travel information. You can also find details on how we will provide service here.
 
This is going to be an invasive work program, so we need your assistance in spreading the word. We will be sharing this notification with first responders and posting billboards at both crossings for motorists and pedestrians, in addition to using other means, to ensure that we are doing everything we can to spread the word about this major project.