Downtown Brooklyn riders just scored a rare treat in subway land: three brand-new elevators at DeKalb Avenue that arrived early.
The elevators, now in service, link the street, mezzanine and platform levels and expand ADA access at one of the borough’s busier hubs on the B, Q and R lines. Built by the Forte-Gramercy joint venture, the upgrades wrapped up a month ahead of schedule, giving riders faster and more reliable vertical access as part of a broader city push to modernize elevator service across the subway system.
According to the New York Real Estate Journal, the DeKalb Avenue scope replaced one street-to-mezzanine elevator and two mezzanine-to-platform elevators. Crews also built new sump pits to improve drainage and tackled targeted leak remediation. On the cosmetic side, riders now see fresh ceramic floor and wall tiles, reconstructed sidewalk pavement at elevator entrances and upgraded finishes at the access points. All of it happened while the station stayed open, which meant threading heavy construction around rush-hour crowds.
Team, contract and technical work
MTA records identify Contract E34054 and name the Forte-Gramercy joint venture as design-builder for the 37-Elevators program, with Stantec as lead designer and Naik-STV serving as project management consultant. The contract maps elevator numbers EL-370 through EL-372 to DeKalb Avenue MTA procurement documents show.
To squeeze modern equipment into a historic station box, project teams reconfigured elevator shaft layouts, shifted equipment locations and redesigned machine rooms so the new cabs still tie cleanly into platform-level systems. Engineers also built in drainage and resilience features intended to cut weather-related outages and extend the life of the equipment.
Project milestone
Now commissioned as EL-370, EL-371 and EL-372, the DeKalb elevators are officially the 19th, 20th and 21st units to go live under the 37-Elevators Project. That nudges the program past its halfway point, according to Informed Infrastructure. The DeKalb work is one piece of a design-build rollout that is bringing updated, code-compliant elevator cabs and access points to stations that still depend on aging vertical systems.
Why riders should care
For riders who rely on elevators for wheelchair access, parents hauling strollers and anyone dragging luggage, the payoff is simple. The new cabs meet current Americans with Disabilities Act standards, which should translate into more consistent, step-free access, the New York Real Estate Journal reports. Those new sump pits and leak fixes are aimed at the classic New York problem of waterlogged elevator shafts, with the goal of reducing breakdowns and improving long-term reliability.
For Downtown Brooklyn commuters and visitors, that all adds up to a sturdier, more dependable way to reach the B, Q and R platforms without touching a stair.
The 37-Elevators Project is still active across the city, with more elevator commissions on the schedule as the design-build teams and the MTA move through the rest of Contract E34054. For riders, the DeKalb upgrades are both an immediate accessibility win and a very visible sign that the MTA is chipping away at its century-old station infrastructure.
