The Long Island Railroad began demolishing the old railroad car wash on Cedar Street in Babylon lass weekend. The work is part of a $25.5 million project to build a state-of-the art facility for washing Long Island Railroad trains for the Babylon branch, and will take approximately two years months to complete.

“We have worked closely with the Village of Babylon in planning this project,” said Sal Arena, an LIRR spokesman. “Village officials have been very cooperative and we worked to address every concern raised by the Village.”

In a letter sent to residents of Babylon Village last week, the LIRR said the demolition will take place for three weekends until March 28. Work will start on Friday evenings at approximately 9 p.m., and end Sunday night at 7 p.m. The work scheduled is designed to cause as little disruption to commuter service as possible, particularly during the weekday, when service is at its peak.

Support column installation will begin Sat., April 10 and continue for eight weekends until May 30. During these weekends, work will take place between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. In order to minimize the noise levels, only vibratory equipment will be used to install the support columns, a railroad spokesman said.

The building will include Green elements. It will have solar panels to generate some of the electricity the facility will use and all water runoff from the site will be treated and recycled. “To the extent that there is any excess water, it will be treated prior to going into the sewer system,” said Arena.

The facility will eliminate all trace pollutants and will have an oil/water separater to prevent any oil or diesel fuel from entering the water system.

“Village officials raised concerns about maintaining the integrity of nearby Sumpwams Creek and Geiger Lake and that has been addressed,” said Arena.

The railroad, which has the legal right to build the facility at that site, has worked with the Village of Babylon on the project. Mayor Ralph Scordino said he focused on minimizing the impact of the work on residents living near the site and on the golf course, which is adjacent to the existing building.

“We were concerned about the noise and how the work would impact our golf course, which is due to open this Wednesday,” said Scordino. “But we also wanted to work with the railroad because many of our residents use the train to get to and from work every day and the railroad is an important part of our economy. We wanted to help ensure that our residents ride on clean and properly maintained railroad cars.”

The railroad, which has an easement near the site, worked with the Village to add to that easement from the golf course parking lot so it could easily and safely pull large vehicles and trailer tractors in and out of the site. The Village is being compensated for that, said Scordino

“We want to make sure that there is as little noise and parking problems as possible,” said Scordino. “Railroad officials promised to strive to limit the impacts of the work.”

The railroad has not had a train car wash on the South Shore line for several years and has, instead, alternated use of the cars between the South Shore and Ronkonkoma lines. A car wash in Ronkonkoma has been used to wash all of the cars. Therailroad has approximately 1,000 cars in total.

“When you consider that the Babylon branch is our largest, this new facility is going to make it much easier for us and we won’t have to manipulate the trains to ensure that they are regularly cleaned,” said Arena.

Once the work is completed the railroad will put in new landscaping to provide a buffer between the golf course and the train wash.

Anyone who has questions or concerns can call the LIRR’s Public Affairs Department at 718-558-8228.