Plants Growing Through the Roof: the Watchdog Audit of the Bronx Subway Shops

The roofs over the subway's repair shops have been failing in plain sight. An audit by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Office of the Inspector General — released October 19 and still the document City Hall is answering for — found long-neglected, deteriorating roofs at New York City Transit maintenance shops that hindered operations and posed safety risks to the workers underneath them. The two worst cases are both in the Bronx.

At the East 180th Street Maintenance Shop, where cars for the 2 and 5 lines are serviced, investigators documented vegetation growing through holes in the roof, significant water damage, and leaks above electrical equipment that let water into machinery; a tarp had been laid out to collect water flowing into buckets, and part of the shop was condemned. The audit began there, after investigators spotted the damage during a routine visit in July 2024, and expanded to nine facilities. Across town at the 240th Street shop, which maintains the 1 train's cars, the pattern repeated: vegetation across the roof, concrete fallen from the ceiling after water worked its way in, sections of roof considered unsafe to walk on — and records showing repairs had been proposed as early as 1984.

'It is unacceptable that these roofs have been allowed to deteriorate so severely that vegetation is growing and major cracks are visible, despite years of requests for critical repairs,' Inspector General Daniel Cort said. The audit's own verdict on the timeline was blunt: the deterioration 'was clearly not recent.' Investigators also found that what they saw on the roofs did not always match what the MTA's own most recent capital-plan assessments said was there — the paperwork was in better shape than the buildings.

The response, so far, is structure and starts. New York City Transit says it has created a Division of Facilities, formed a dedicated roof team, completed seven repairs, and is hiring more than 100 additional facilities staff, including dedicated roofers; temporary repairs were made after investigators revisited the shops alongside subway facilities leadership. The inspector general's three recommendations ask for standardized assessments of maintenance facilities, clear instructions for staff on how to report roof and structural damage, and proper identification of employee safety hazards. The permanent fixes sit in the 2025-2029 capital plan: a roof replacement at East 180th Street, and design work for 240th Street — the shop where the repair was first proposed when some of today's riders' parents were riding.