MTA’s $599 Million Rockaway Line Rehabilitation Remains Scheduled for Substantial Completion in August 2026

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $599 million rehabilitation of the Rockaway Line remains listed as under construction, with substantial completion targeted for August 2026, according to the agency’s capital-program update and project page.

The work covers approximately five miles of elevated structure between Beach 116th Street-Rockaway Park and Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue. It includes steel and concrete repairs, along with wrapping concrete beams in fiber-reinforced polymer. The January 2025 capital-program update listed the project as 29% complete and on schedule and on budget at that time.

Storm-resiliency work is part of the project

Related work includes a new elevated signal tower at Beach 105th Street. The tower is intended to support emergency-terminal operations if Rockaway Park Yard is affected by flooding or storms. The project addresses damage from Superstorm Sandy and the line’s vulnerability to flooding and climate change.

The Rockaway Line serves nearly 10,000 daily riders and connects almost 125,000 peninsula residents with the rest of New York City. A 17-week 2025 service outage for work at Hammels Wye has ended, though additional structural, interlocking and signal-tower work remained at that point. The MTA’s next stated milestone is substantial completion in the third quarter of 2026, with the capital document specifying August. The agency’s public project page does not confirm that substantial completion has occurred as of Aug. 9, 2026.