Demanding Answers: Flooding, Leaks Plague Pair Of Subway Stations After Multi-Million Dollar Renovations
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Straphangers are up in arms after a pair of New York City subway stations, recently renovated in multimillion dollar projects, started flooding and leaking just one week after reopening.
Decorated with blue sky mosaics, new digital signs, and glass barriers, the 72nd Street station by Central Park West was reopened this month after being closed for five months of construction.
Exactly one week after returning to service, commuters were back to trudging through flooded stairwells.
"I'm not sure what the problem was, why they can't prevent flooding especially if they just redid the station," one rider said.
The deluge was deja vu for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. In September, commuters took pictures of flooding at the 110th Street station less than a week after it reopened following, once again, five months of construction.
The renovations at both stations made up half of a $100 million MTA project. What's more, both jobs were done by the same contractor.
"They constantly seem to be behind the curb when there are problems," said commuter Marc Spetalnik. "(They) always seem to be surprised by infrastructure issues."
CBS2's Ali Bauman took commuters' concerns to New York City Transit Authority President Andy Byford, and demanded answers.
"In the first instance, 110th Street, the contractor made an error with the tiling," Byford explained. "The most recent incident at 72nd Street, on the day of torrential rain the drain was clogged."
CBS2 pressed the contractors about their work, but they just referred us back to the MTA.
So will the MTA ever work with this contractor again after back-to-back mishaps?
"Let's put these into context," Byford said. "In two days, two separate non-related incidents happened. They were very quickly dealt with, and the end result is two beautiful new stations customers are very pleased with."
Customers CBS2 spoke with do indeed seem to be pleased with the renovations, as long as blue skies are ahead.