Accessibility issues dog MTA station rehab

In a 17-page filing submitted Wednesday, Oct. 13, the United Spinal Association, a non-profit group, charged New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority with advancing “a major renovation of Dyckman Street Station, and to spend many millions of dollars doing so, without doing the disability access work that would allow people with disabilities and seniors to actually use the facility.”

MTA is arguing that the subway station, located on the No. 1 line in northern Manhattan, is not a key transfer station nor a top 100 “key”station required to be complaint with the Americans with Disabilities Act by2020, as measured by ridership. MTA also says it cannot fully fund theimprovements sought by the association, including elevator access, alluding to the “unfunded mandate” levied by Congress.

But the association filing counters, “Federal law requires that when alterations are made to an existing transit facility, at least 20% of the cost of the alterations must be spent on making the altered facility accessible to and usable by people with disabilities … ”

MTA last July began work on the $47 million rehabilitation project, which includes platform replacement and track replacement.