Two weeks ago we learned that MTA Capital Construction is likely to go over the previously set 2019 completion date and $8.2 billion pricetag for the largest construction project around--East Side Access. Earlier today, we learned just how off they might be.
According to Ted Mann at the Wall Street Journal, the new timeline for the project to be presented by MTA officials to the MTA board on Monday might extend into 2021 or beyond. And as the delayed completion date wasn't bad enough, reports indicate that the cost for the project could reach as high as $10 billion.
That is a two-year and $1.8bn delay from the previous projections. The project started rolling in 2001 when the then-governor, George Pataki approved the project. In 2006, when an agreement on how the funds would be appropriated, the first projected completion date for the project was set for December 2013. Needless to say, we missed that mark pretty badly, as the ESA project has experienced that projected date pushed back countless times.
After four years of "work" on the project, the MTA informed hopeful riders that ESA won't be ready until 2016. One year later it was pushed back to 2017, then 2019 in August of 2012. Today, in the first couple days of 2014 we find that we are yet again "just 7 years away" with a new projected completion date of 2021. We're always "just 7 years away."
Will the MTA be able to stick to this date? Your guess is as good as mine. They might as well just state the completion date as "sometime in the 2020's" and the cost "under $100 billion" at this point, since it seems they can't keep work on the project going in a straight line.
Anyways, at this rate, the LIRR will have a couple more years to finish those ESA readiness projects (which seem to be equally lethargic themselves) and I'll have a couple more years of riding to Long Island City.
But, until then, we're still "just 7 years away."
West End:
ReplyDeleteshoreham
Shoreham
SHOREHAM
Another $6 billion and 7 years? Heck lets scrap the deep caverns and build a loop with the GCT Lower Level Alternative. Atlantic Ave, Downtown Manhattan, GCT, Sunnyside. Throw in LIRR Lower Rockaway Park reactivation for MNCR/LIRR JFK train service. If local contractors can't manage this hire foreign contractors (from Tokyo, Stockholm, London, Paris, Barcelona) who do this on a regular basis to show the locals how.
Part of the issue that they discovered underground springs in Queens that they didn't expect during construction.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wnyc.org/story/207584-tunnel-linking-lirr-grand-central-terminal-could-be-delayed-again/
I'm truly surprised the MTA didn't expect this and plan accordingly. The whole Sunnyside Yard was constructed on filled-in saltmarsh, and one look at any 19th-century or earlier map of the area would show numerous historical tidal creeks cutting across it, many of which were no doubt spring fed. That original geology may be buried under tons of fill, but it's still there. Did they not consult with any geologists or hydrologists before they started digging?
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