Thursday, February 28, 2008

Transit delays

Rising Costs Push Back NYC Transit Megaprojects
WNBC4

Rising construction costs have caused New York City's transit agency to push back the dates of several major transit projects.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says the first leg of a subway planned for decades on Manhattan's East Side will be put off until 2015; so will the connection of some Long Island Rail Road lines from Queens to Grand Central Terminal.

A renovated downtown Manhattan subway station will open next year -- a year later than planned -- and there is no completion date for a planned transit hub near ground zero.

The MTA said Wednesday that delaying some completion dates would allow it to save money by signing smaller contracts for the job. It also added $1.5 billion to the cost estimates for the expansion projects, saying the cost of materials have skyrocketed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

When is the MTA going to give up the impossible dream of a Second Avenue Subway? Construction and labor costs in the 21st Century make new subway lines impossible to build--sad but true, especially since we built most of the present subway between 1904 and 1915, then converted outlying RRs to els and then built the IND (1925-1940).

Dedicated bus lanes on N-S Manhattan avenues are a more affordable choice.

www.forgotten-ny.com

Anonymous said...

It is not an impossible dream and remember, we alreadey paid for it when we voted for the transportation bond in 2006 which guaranteed New Yorkers $12 billion dollars for transporattion funding - specifcally for the second avenue subway and east side access.
Dedicated bus lanes? There already are dedicated bus lanes and no matter how hard they try to enforce those lanes, it proves to be impossible. Also, how many busses do you think you need to transport the amount of passengers a subway train carries?
We just have to stay on top of the MTA and the politicians and get it built (no frills and fancy mosaic's).
forgotten-ny, the only thing that should be forgotten are your comments.

Anonymous said...

Don't be surprised if the MTA ends up bailing on the latter phase(s) of the SAS. We'll end up with a four stop "stubway."

Anonymous said...

Does this delay really surprise anyone?