MTA buses have been moved out of the Kingsbridge Bus Depot in Inwood after the wheel of a bus broke through the concrete parking deck of the depot’s annex Monday evening, the Daily News has learned.
Kingsbridge buses were dispatched out of the Manhattanville and Gun Hill Depots Tuesday, as engineers worked to assess the structural integrity of the 30-year-old building.
A transit worker moving a bus onto an upper floor of the annex stopped around 7:30 p.m. Monday after feeling one of the front wheels sink into an apparent pothole.
Upon closer inspection, the worker noticed he could see through the hole to the floor of the garage below, which was covered in concrete debris.
No one was injured when the concrete fell, according to officials with the MTA and the Transport Workers Union, which represents employees at the depot.
The incident, described by union officials as a “partial collapse,” comes amid concerns over the aging infrastructure at other MTA bus facilities — including the East New York Depot in Brooklyn where fire sprinklers have been inoperable for more than two years and the Michael J. Quill Depot in Midtown where the transit agency faces fines for delayed roof repairs.
New York City Transit president Richard Davey said Tuesday that structural engineers with the MTA’s Bridges and Tunnels division were on scene, checking for concrete spalling, cracks, or any other signs of structural issues.
Sources told The News that the state’s Department of Labor — which has inspected issues at East New York and Michael J. Quill—was also on the scene.
The Labor Department issued a violation to the MTA in 2022, citing “cracks and potholes at different locations” on the second floor of the annex building.
A copy of the violation, reviewed by The News, characterized the damage as “trip and fall hazards,” and did not raise concerns over structural integrity.
“Obviously, safety is first and paramount,” Davey said Tuesday, noting that the annex would remain closed until repairs could be made.
The transit boss acknowledged that repair work is necessary at facilities across the system.
“We don’t have a lot of brand new stuff around here,” he said of bus facilities.
Fourteen of the MTA’s 24 bus depots are scheduled for a renovation, according to transit officials.
The Kingsbridge depot consists of two structures — a main building which houses maintenance shops, and the annex, which provides parking. The depot is home to about 240 buses, according to transit officials.
Roughly 200 runs are scheduled out of Kingsbridge each morning, Davey said.
The Inwood depot is home to a dozen Bronx bus lines and is also home to the M100 bus.
Kingsbridge is also one of the depots slated to house heavier electric buses and their related charging equipment.
Davey said he had been working “hand in glove” with TWU leaders to temporarily move bus operations to Gun Hill and Manhattanville depots in the Bronx while inspections at Kingsbridge continue.
“If you’re a rider, you won’t notice any difference,” he said.
