Thursday, October 1, 2026
Workers from the MTA have been installing large pieces of equipment at the Long Island Rail Road Maple Avenue substation.
During the installation, six equipment modules were transported by tractor-trailer from a staging area in Municipal Parking Field 12, just north of the Recreation Center, to the substation. At the site, which is just east of the U-Haul building and opposite Brower Avenue on the south side of Maple, a large construction crane has been lifting the modules and moving them into position.
The modules arrived at the east end of the parking field, which was cordoned off last weekend.
Residents and businesses in the area were notified of the activity, “no parking” signs were posted along a stretch of North Long Beach Road, and traffic control personnel assisted as the equipment was moved and installed.
The Farmers Market was open as scheduled on Sunday, Oct. 16 from 7 a.m. to noon, but was relocated to the center of the lot, which is on the north side of Sunrise Highway, between Forest Avenue and Long Beach Road.
The railroad has been cleaning soil tainted with mercury, lead and PCB from under its power substation for some time. In 2008 it announced plans to demolish and remove the transformer and a concrete slab under it, and to dig up and remove the contaminated soil from five-to-eight feet deep in six spots on the site.
The railroad said the contaminated soil was contained to its property and posed no threat to the village’s water supply, and that the cleanup would likewise pose no health hazard to local residents.
The substations used mercury until the 1980s to convert electricity used to power the third rail, the power source for trains on the LIRR’s electrified tracks.
