(The following article by Terry Corcoran was posted on the White Plains Journal News website on August 18.)
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Metro-North’s Hudson Line trains resumed a normal schedule yesterday morning between Peekskill and Garrison, a day after heavy rains washed out the ground beneath the tracks, leaving a 25-foot section of rail exposed.
Workers shored up the tracks with concrete blocks, railroad spokesman Dan Brucker said.
The washout, which happened about 8:30 a.m. Monday, occurred roughly midway between the Garrison and Peekskill stations and forced the railroad to hire school buses to take commuters between the stops.
Electrician Chris Quintana missed the morning delays on Monday but was stuck that afternoon at the Peekskill station waiting to get on a bus to Garrison.
“I should be walking through my door right now,” Quintana, 40, said about 4 p.m. Monday. “It’s a natural disaster, so what are you going to do? I can’t blame them.”
Brucker said crews used a temporary fix to get the trains running.
“As opposed to putting the earth back beneath the tracks, they used structural elements — concrete Jersey barriers — to hold the tracks in place,” he said. “They are perfectly fine, and the trains are running through at the normal speed.”
Metro-North crews remained at the site yesterday and were working to replace the concrete supports with earth and ballast, the heavy stones on which the rails sit.
“They’re doing the work of replacing the concrete supports,” Brucker said.
He could not estimate how long the work would take but said it would not affect train service.
Meanwhile, Bear Mountain Bridge Road, closed Monday after the rain washed rocks and earth onto the road, was opened during rush hour yesterday morning and evening to allow motorists coming from the south to reach the bridge. The road was closed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. so state Department of Transportation crews could clean up the rocks and debris that fell onto the road, said DOT spokesman Rich Gaupman.
Crews will return today to resume cleaning the road during the same six-hour period, but whether they return tomorrow depends on the progress made today, Gaupman said.
Amtrak, which uses the Metro-North tracks on its New York-to-Albany run, had limited service on that line yesterday but will resume a normal schedule today, spokeswoman Marcie Golgoski said.