MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) broke ground on a new $25.5 million train wash facility located in the Village of Babylon.

The project, which promises to create between 20 and 30 construction jobs, is being financed with federal stimulus funds through the Federal Transit Administration. The Babylon Train Wash Facility was selected by Gov. David Paterson and the MTA a shovel-ready project that represented the best use of federal stimulus funds.

Important "green" aspects of the facility will include:

• The filtering, reconditioning and reusing of more than 70% of wash water.

• Supplemental solar power energy panels will help operate the electrical lighting and heating for the train wash equipment building, saving the LIRR an estimated $6,700 a year on utility costs.

• Storm water will be collected and released through a leach field, eliminating run-off pollutants into nearby Sumpwams and Geiger Creeks.

• A separator will prevent oil and diesel fuel from entering the waste water system.

• Area wetlands will be fenced to prevent damage and illicit dumping.

• A new landscape buffer will be built between the golf course and the train wash.

The Babylon Branch of the LIRR is the busiest of the LIRR's 11 branches. When it becomes the operational in 2012, the LIRR will be able to clean the exteriors of an additional 180 cars every day. The Railroad currently has one operating train wash at the entrance to its Ronkonkoma Train Yard.

The new Babylon Train Wash Facility will consist of two buildings: A masonry equipment building will house the control, wash room, pumps, reclaim/recycle wash water, waste water treatment system and storage tanks for the train wash. The second structure will be the train wash bay, a steel/corrugated siding structure consisting of pre-cast track slab sections, concrete foundations, wash water collection system and the train wash equipment.