Metro-North Service Restored After Building Collapse
Updated, 5:20 p.m. Service on all three main lines of the Metro-North Railroad — the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines — was suspended at 3:15 p.m. after a vacant five-story building collapsed at 124th Street and Park Avenue, one block from the 125th Street station in Harlem, where all three lines stop on their way to and from Grand Central Terminal.
Service was restored starting at 4:45 p.m., starting with a 3:50 p.m. Hudson Line train bound for Croton-Harmon, which left Grand Central about an hour after its scheduled departure. By then, an untold number of trains and passengers had been inconvenienced, with many passengers told to find alternative means of travel.
There were no reports of any injuries. At 11:54 a.m., a caller reported that the facade on the east side of the building, at 102 East 124th Street, had deteriorated and partly collapsed into an adjacent lot. After city workers responded to the scene, the rest of the building fell, officials said. The stability of an adjacent vacant building, at 100 East 124th Street, has been compromised, and the building will be demolished imminently as a precaution, officials said.
According to property records, both properties are owned by Kushner Companies, a property management firm based in Manhattan and Florham Park, N.J. Jared C. Kushner, a principal of the firm, is the owner and publisher of The New York Observer. The records indicate that the properties were sold together for $5.2 million in 2006. City tax records describe 102 East 124th Street as a five-story, 19-unit building and 100 East 24th Street as a five-story, 25-unit building. Both were built in 1910.
Howard J. Rubenstein, a spokesman for Jared Kushner, said the company had planned to demolish the buildings and intended to go through with the work starting at 7 p.m. this evening.
“The buildings had been vacant for about six months, and the company had initially intended to rehabilitate the buildings,” Mr. Rubenstein said. “Two days ago, bricks started to fall from the building. Kushner sent engineers down, and they determined that both buildings were not stable, were not safe. And they contacted the Department of Buildings seeking permission to demolish both buildings, starting tomorrow. The Department of Buildings and the Fire Department sent people to the scene immediately, and while they were there, the building collapsed.”
Mr. Rubenstein quoted Mr. Kushner as saying: “Thank goodness no one was hurt. It’s quite unfortunate that this tremendous inconvenience was caused.”
The Police and Fire Departments directed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to suspend service, out of concern that the vibrations of the moving trains could lead to further damage, M.T.A. officials said.
Consolidated Edison has cut power to the site and the Department of Environmental Protection has cut water to the site.
Northbound traffic on the east side of Park Avenue from 123rd to 125th Streets has been suspended, as has traffic on East 124th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues.
“They don’t want rumbling to weaken the parts of the building that are still standing,” said Marjorie S. Anders, a Metro-North spokeswoman. “So far we don’t have any debris on the tracks but I’ve been told if the building collapses further, we might.”
Passengers on what was to have been the 3:10 p.m. Hudson Line train reportedly heard announcements directing them to leave the train and find alternative means of travel.
At Grand Central Terminal, a loud groan arose from the main hall after an announcement on the intercom system at 4:10 p.m. said that service was suspended. Hundreds of people milled around in the main hall, many of them talking on their cellphones. A giant message board stated, “Attention customers, due to Fire Department activity, Metro-North service has been temporarily discontinued.”
Sarah English, 29, who works in financial services in Westchester County, was on a business trip in Manhattan today and arrived at Grand Central at 3:30 p.m. to catch a train back home to Chappaqua.
“First they said service was temporarily discontinued, and then they said about 10 minutes later that service was going to resume on a limited basis,” she recalled around 4:30 p.m. “And then they said, after about another 10 minutes, that full service would be restored. And then about 10 minutes ago, they said there was no service at all.” She was talking with friends about whether to rent a car, take a bus or find another source of transportation.
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