The L train shutdown was scheduled to begin April 27 and last 15 months, crippling a key piece of the city’s transportation network. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subway, had said the closing was necessary to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when the tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn was inundated by floodwaters.
Under a new plan unveiled by Cuomo, workers would use a different design to repair the tunnel and some work could be done on nights and weekends. He said not fully closing the L train would be a “phenomenal benefit to the people of New York City.'’
The alternative plan was recommended by a panel of experts convened by Cuomo, who said that they proposed a design that had been used in Europe but had not been tried in the United States.
For months, subway officials have been preparing for the closing and planning alternate routes for commuters to reach Manhattan, which have included a significant expansion of bus service and adding bike lanes. When the shutdown was announced in 2016, the news prompted panic in Brooklyn over what it meant for real estate and local businesses to be choked off from Manhattan.
Last month, Cuomo, who controls the subway, toured the L train tunnel with engineering experts to see if there was another way to undertake the repair work.
“If there’s a better way of doing it, they tell us there’s a better way of doing it,” Cuomo said at the time. “If there’s not a better way of doing it, they say that’s the best that it can be done.”
The transit agency initially said the shutdown would be 18 months and later shortened it to 15 months. Subway officials had considered two proposals — a shorter, full closing of the tunnel or a partial three-year shutdown that would have allowed some trains to continue running.
They chose the full closure in an effort to do it quickly and limit the inconvenience for riders.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.