A mild 2023 winter has helped work advance on a $49-million effort to repair a subway bridge and communications network that link the Rockaways section of Queens to the rest of New York City—a fitting contrast to the brutal Superstorm Sandy surges more than a decade ago that heavily damaged the Jamaica Bay crossing and transportation infrastructure across the entire region.
While the fixed North Channel Bridge and its track survived crushing waters from the epic 2012 storm, key parts of the structure’s support—including the fender system, piles, navigational lighting and cables—took direct hits that now require replacement or repair. In the mostly remote 5.8-mile section where New York City Transit’s A line crosses from Howard Beach Station to the Hammels Wye facility on Rockaway Peninsula, that kind of work primarily takes place on an undulating surface—the waterway itself.