MTA: Messy insulation was no hazard, but it’s fixed

The unsightly cables that appeared under the elevated subway line at W. 238th Street and Broadway and prompted residents’ concerns were not electrical and did not present danger, the Metropolitan Transit Authority said. 

The MTA has made an effort to fix the messy handiwork, the agency added. 

The efforts came after residents pointed out what, to some, looked like electrical equipment that had been poorly insulated.  

In a visit to the site, under the 238th Street stop on the one line, The Press’ journalists observed what looked to be cables, along with some insulation, coming from the ground and leading up to an electrical closet within the station. 

A member of the MTA’s board of trustees who lives in Riverdale, Charles Moerdler, said the sight left him confused as to the nature of the cables as well.

“I don’t know the answer to your question, but I am damn sure that I will get an answer,” he said in a Sept. 5 email. “Not something that looks friendly.”

The mess turned out to be a water drainage pipe, Mr. Moerdler said in another email later, citing an MTA official. 

“’Looks like pipe insulation. Not a safety issue, but certainly unsightly,’” the email quoted an unidentified official as saying.

Responding to a separate media request, MTA officials said they would be fixing the insulation on the drainage pipe in preparation for winter.

“We will be replacing the insulation for it soon in preparation for cooler weather,” MTA spokeswoman Amanda Kwan said in an email on Sept. 6.

Since then, the eyesore has been covered with a layer of sheet metal, and some of the piping and insulants have been repainted.