The Michael J. Quill bus depot in Hell’s Kitchen is undergoing emergency repairs this weekend as crews reinforce a ramp into the facility, the Daily News has learned.
Bus service at the MTA’s largest depot, home to roughly 350 buses operating on a dozen Manhattan routes, is expected to be unaffected.
“They expect this work to be concluded by Monday morning,” Donald Yates, vice president of Manhattan and Bronx buses for the Transport Workers Union Local 100, said of the MTA. “They’ve made some logistical moves to be able to continue operations over the weekend.”
Sources told The News that defects to at least one ramp were discovered early Friday, and that repair work had already begun by Friday evening.
The discovery of the damaged infrastructure comes a week after TWU Local 100 leadership demanded access to a structural assessment report on the depot commissioned by the MTA.
That report was given to members of union leadership “on a confidential basis” Thursday, TWU 100 said in a statement.
Neither the MTA nor the TWU would provide The News with a copy of the assessment Friday.
“The depot is safe for employees, with no impact to service,” MTA spokesman Michael Cortez said in a statement. “We have identified a ramp that requires repairs, which are now underway.”
The depot, originally built in the late 1960s as a garage for private carrier Greyhound, was last renovated in the late ’90s.
The union has repeatedly raised concerns over spalling concrete and cracks in the roof at the depot, while the MTA has repeatedly said the depot is safe.
Yates, the union VP, told The News Friday that he was not among those who had read the structural assessment, but said the ramp defect being repaired this weekend did not constitute a structural issue.
“The building’s not falling down — they have to make repairs to the ramp,” he said.
As previously reported by The News, the state Department of Labor fined the MTA in 2023 for failing to conduct roof repairs at the facility fast enough.
The MTA has earmarked money in its current capital plan to conduct major repairs at several bus depots, including roof repairs at Michael J. Quill, repairs to Gun Hill Depot, and an overhaul including the replacement of the long-out-of-commission fire sprinkler system at East New York Depot.
