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The City of Albany announced that passenger service west of Albany would resume Tuesday, Aug. 2 after crews finished remediation efforts at the Central Warehouse building.
The announcement came three days after Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan declared a state of emergency citing a structural engineering report warning that portions of the building's southern facade faced an “imminent” risk of collapse.
In an update Monday, Aug.1 Sheehan said contractors had completed the removal of loose concrete adjacent to the rail line.
Crews removed the building’s smokestack the day prior.
Sheehan said work was underway Monday to secure portions of the southern wall to the internal structure.
“These actions have abated the threat to public safety and allowed Amtrak to restart train service across the Livingston Avenue rail bridge,” she said.
Amtrak confirmed that Empire Service trains 281, 283, and 284 would resume normal operations on Tuesday.
“As I stated on Friday, our number one priority has been to safeguard the public, and get rail service back on track,” Sheehan said.
“Thanks to the hard work of our Director of Buildings and Regulatory Compliance, as well as our contractors, we achieved that goal.”
Sheehan said there was still work to be done to prevent further deterioration.
As for the cost of the remediation efforts, Sheehan said the City of Albany plans to bill the warehouse’s owner, Evan Blum.
"This endeavor has made it crystal clear that the ongoing neglect by the building's owner, Evan Blum, is not only impacting our city, but commerce across the Northeast,” Sheehan said.
She want on to urge Blum to take the necessary steps to prevent something similar from occurring in the future.
“If he refuses to do so, we will not hesitate to once again step in and protect our residents and businesses to the fullest extent of the law,” Sheehan said.
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