Metropolitan Avenue-Lorimer Street subway station gets ADA elevators

This marks 151 accessible stations, with more to come

April 3, 2024 Raanan Geberer

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber emerges from one of the new elevators. MTA photo by Marc Hermann

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WILLIAMSBURG — The installation of six elevators at the Metropolitan Avenue subway station on the G line and the Lorimer Street station on the L line — which are linked together via a free transfer — is a milestone not only for the North Brooklyn community, but for the MTA’s program of making its subway stations ADA-accessible as rapidly as possible.

The opening of the elevators at Metropolitan Avenue/Lorimer Street this week brings the number of ADA-compliant subway stations in the system up to 151, according to MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber, a Brooklyn resident.

In Brooklyn, 11 other subway stations have been made accessible since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the MTA. These serve a wide variety of neighborhoods, from Bay Ridge to Crown Heights to Flatbush to Williamsburg to Canarsie.

“Four years ago, if I wanted to go to Williamsburg and enjoy McCarren Park and seeing live music, I couldn’t take the subway here,” said MTA Chief Accessibility Officer Quemuel Arroyo, who uses a wheelchair himself. “This is no longer the case. First Bedford Avenue (on the L line), the Greenpoint Avenue (on the G line), and then Grand Street (on the L line), just last summer, have been made accessible.”

MTA Chief Accessibility Officer Quemuel Arroyo celebrates the new elevators at the Metropolitan Avenue-Lorimer Street subway complex. MTA photo by Marc Hermann

Arroyo stressed that ADA accessibility is not only for the disabled community — elevators can also help people carrying packages, families with strollers, and the elderly who may have trouble walking up stairs.

Members of the local North Williamsburg community were also well represented at the ceremony on Monday. Among them were Dan Wiley, representing U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazaquez; Simon Weiser, first vice chair of Community Board 1; Johanna Pulgarin, district manager for CB1; and Luis Castrillon, assistant district manager for the board.

The other Brooklyn stations that have been made ADA accessible since the pandemic include 7th Avenue on the F and G lines; Grand Street on the L line; 8th Avenue on the N train; Bedford Avenue on the L; 86th Street on the R train; 59th Street on the R and N; Greenpoint Avenue on the G; Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum on the 2 and 3 lines; Avenue H on the Q train; Livonia Avenue on the L and Canarsie-Rockaway Parkway on the L.

At Lorimer Street-Metropolitan Avenue, the elevators were not the only accessibility modifications. Other upgrades, said Arroyo, include tactile strips on platform edges for customer safety; new accessible fare equipment at goth station entrances for those who have trouble using turnstiles; replacement of broken tiles on the station’s ceilings and walls, and a new public announcement system.

As for the elevators themselves, according to the MTA, the include fire alarm systems, smoke and heat detectors, cameras and an emergency two-way communication system. The mezzanine area around the elevators was reconfigured in order to create ADA-accessible pathways.

The upgrades at Lorimer Street and Metropolitan Avenue and other recent ADA upgrades were made using the “design-build” method of construction. The designer and builder are hired under the same contract and work together as a team, as opposed to the traditional method where there are separate contracts for the designer and the builder.

In total, there are 412 subway stations in the NYC transit system, meaning that the majority of stations are still non-accessible. Still, according to Lieber, “We’re knocking out those ADA accessibility upgrades at four or five times the pace of prior MTA projects, and we’re not going to slow down.”