LIRR Garage Repairs Blamed On Faulty Concrete
/
Emergency repairs, which are closing portions of the top two floors of the LIRR South Parking Garage in Huntington Station area, are underway.
Faulty concrete is to blame for emergency repairs to the top deck of the South Parking Garage at the Huntington train station, town officials said.
The repairs have forced the closure of 228 spots on the fourth and fifth level, town officials announced this week.
Town spokesman A.J. Carter said the emergency repairs are due to a construction error tied to 2013 repairs to the garage, performed by Long Island City-based contractor Structural Preservation Systems.
“Some time last year, the engineering department took a look at that top level and saw some issues… some sort of deterioration that shouldn’t be there, but especially in a project that was a year old,” Carter said.
The cause? Bad concrete, Carter said.
Industry standards indicate that concrete should include no more than 5 percent of a stone called mica schist because of its absorbent qualities. The cement used in the 2013 repairs, however, was 100-percent mica schist. Carter said the current repairs are being done by Structural Preservation Systems at no cost to the town.
The emergency repairs on the fifth level include removing concrete in certain areas, repairing some post-tensioned cables and installing a new, epoxy-coated welded wire steel fabric for reinforcement. While the work is confined to the fifth floor, town officials are closing stalls on the floor below to prevent damage and injuries to cars and people from falling debris.
Affected parking includes 112 stalls on the fifth level, located on the northern lane of the parking deck and the eastern half of the bridge, and 116 stalls on the fourth level, located directly below the fifth level work areas.
Once concrete removal work is done, the town is hoping to reopen some of the fourth-floor spots. That should happen within the next two or three weeks, Carter said.
In the meantime, town officials are encouraging drivers to use the municipal parking lots, starting at Railroad Street and extending down Route 110, as temporary overflow parking if needed.
