Some may be familiar with the ongoing East Side Access project (see LICNYC's earlier story).

Our most local, most visible indication of this work is over by P.S.1, across the way, where lumber and trucks have been piled up for a couple of years. They have finished building a very large, very unattractive blue and white shed and also a long, pristine LIRR platform. All of this is a few steps from the existing Hunterspoint Ave LIRR stop.

What is going on? LICNYC chooses to speculate. The shed's purpose is more clear: it's a construction/repair site for Amtrack trains and perhaps LIRR. It takes over the role from a part of the Sunnyside Yards (which you can see if you go by the Queensboro Plaza area and peek past the dead end streets; it's the main place that trains are stored and repaired). So this shed will soon come online and make room elsewhere. For what? For what is meant to be a large station connecting LIRR to Grand Central Station on the East Side.

Meanwhile, there is a new LIRR platform whose purpose is not clear. Perhaps they will close down the old Hunterspoint Ave?

And finally, they are starting to clear off all that lumber and building supplies that have lined Jackson Ave for so long now. What will they do with the streetfront plot of land on Arch St, closed for so long? Inquiring minds want to know.