Metro-North To Rebuild 14th Avenue Bridge In Mount Vernon

MOUNT VERNON, NY – Work on the replacement of the 14th Avenue Bridge in the city will result in the closure of the existing bridge starting May 7, for about 10 months. Demolition will begin soon, Metro-North announced.

Built two centuries ago, the 14th Avenue Bridge is a simply supported, single span, steel truss structure with a timber and asphalt road deck that connects different districts of the city. Built in 1894, it is 94 feet long.

The area surrounding the bridge is residential on the north end and commercial on the south end. The bridge currently carries a Con Edison gas main on the east curb and a City of Mount Vernon water main on the west curb.

The bridge is between New Haven Railroad Street and West 1st Street, over the New Haven Line.

The bridge replacement project is estimated to cost $10.2 million, with the bulk of the funding provided by the MTA Capital Program. Of that total cost, $1.3 million was secured by J. Gary Pretlow, New York State Assemblyman (Assembly District 89) for the City of Mount Vernon and Yonkers.

“We are pleased to support the renewal of the City of Mount Vernon’s infrastructure,” Metro-North Railroad President Catherine Rinaldi said in the announcement. “Rebuilding the 14 Avenue Bridge will enhance the City’s quality of life, and we thank local, state and federal representatives for understanding the importance of funding these projects.”

In Mount Vernon, the four Metro-North tracks are below street level in a “railway cut” that is spanned by 11 closely spaced bridges. Mount Vernon’s bridges are key to the City’s economic and commercial viability. Under agreements inherited from predecessor railroads, these bridges are the responsibility of Metro-North to maintain with the City also sharing responsibility for certain bridges.

“For ten long years, Mount Vernon’s north side was cut off from the south side, harming quality of life and jeopardizing public safety,” said Mayor Richard Thomas. “The decision by Metro-North to significantly increase its capital investment in Mount Vernon and dedicate over $60 million to replace overhead bridges on the New Haven Line is a significant victory for jobs, safety, transportation, and the local economy. Over fifty percent of Metro North’s daily ridership comes through Mount Vernon and it is a smart business practice to invest in their protection. As work officially begins, we can now start the journey of repairing relationships and reconnecting our community on both sides of the tracks. Mount Vernon thanks the MTA for working with us to reconnect our city and look forward to the next chapter covering the railroad cut to create a new standard in green public space.”

Metro-North issued a design-build contract to expedite the project. Design-build contracts call for a single contractor to be responsible for both designing and building an entire project in order to ensure that coordination is seamless, and that work is completed in the shortest possible time.

The design of the bridge has been completed and work crews have already removed trees at bridge abutments, installed temporary access stairs down to track level, and have completed the installation of several hundred feet of new conduit runs and pullboxes at track level despite challenging weather conditions over the last several months. At present the contractor is running new cables in these conduits and will be cutting over the power from the existing to new system. The completion of this work will permit the contractor to remove existing Metro-North signal power and communication lines currently attached to the bridge so that it can be demolished.

For 10 months, the bridge will be closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic and signage will be provided to clearly identify detour routes.

When the demolition is complete, the contractor will get to work on the construction of the new bridge superstructure, this includes rehabilitation of stone abutment walls and installing gas and electric utilities. The design-build contractor will install new roadway approaches, ADA compliant ramps, sidewalks, stripping, signage, dry standpipe system, benches, planters and ornamental fencing. John Civetta & Sons Inc. was awarded the 15 month design-build contract to complete the bridge replacement.

The bridge will also get an aesthetic makeover. MTA Arts & Design commissioned artist Frances Gallardo to create site specific artwork for the bridge. Inspired by the history of Mount Vernon (nicknamed “City of Homes”), the artwork will depict an abstract collage of maps based on the blueprints of the city’s original planning, grid structure of city land plots and the satellite view, creating an intricate lace-like pattern, to reflect on a person’s daily route through Mount Vernon. The lines in the artwork connect elements of the city and the lines of the train tracks below the bridge. The artwork will be fabricated into sculptural panels in metal and will incorporate seamlessly with the standard ornamental fencing along the new bridge.

Image via Google Maps