New Elevators At 2 Wash Heights Stations To Get Replaced Early

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Shiny new elevators are coming soon to train stations in Washington Heights.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced on Thursday the early projected completion of elevator replacements at the 191st Street Station. The project is now set to be completed later in November, two months ahead of its scheduled completion date of February 2021.

The elevators have been closed since February 2020.

In a positive ripple effect, the early completion of the elevator project at 191st allows the MTA to accelerate its work on replacing the 181st Street Station elevators.

The 181st Street project was scheduled to begin in March 2021, but now will begin on Dec. 5 and be finished by December 2021.

Here's what the work at 181st Street will include:

• Complete replacement of four elevators and machine room equipment.
• New LiftNet system to improve emergency response time to elevator incidents.
• A battery back-up system that would allow customers to exit the elevator during a power outage.
• Installation of two cameras and fire alarms in each of the elevators.
• Adding direct access to the northbound platform from the new elevators.

“This is the new way MTA approaches projects. During the pandemic, we actually accelerated projects to get more done while ridership is low," said Janno Lieber, President of MTA Construction & Development, in a news release. “With today’s milestone we have now successfully completed eight elevator projects during the pandemic, and I look forward to maintaining that momentum on work throughout the MTA system.”

The elevator replacement work at the two Upper Manhattan stations is part of a broader project to replace elevators at five stations in Washington Heights: 168th Street, 181st Street, 191st Street on the 1 line; 181st Street and 190th Street on the A line.

The 181st Street Station originally opened in 1906 and is listed on the U.S. Register of Historic Places.