The Secaucus Boondoggle Continues To Drain Coffers

How much does it cost to change a light bulb at Secaucus Junction? A heck of a lot more than it should because of a design flaw that requires special equipment to be rented on a regular basis to enable workers access to the 75 tall ceiling to replace burnt out light bulbs.

What you have to do is punch a hole in the roof so that a crane can be brought inside. Next, using another crane, you have to lower the first crane through the hole, construct a ramp, widen an entryway and protect the stone floor with plywood. The project, now under way, is expected to take two weeks.

As for the cost, the crane rental alone to change the 608 light bulbs is $10,000 -- or $16.44 per bulb. No one was willing to put a price tag on the whole project.

Nonetheless, the station's operation manager doesn't think the cost is anything unusual. "It's no different than the kind of maintenance they do in malls," he told The Record.

It's interesting that the costs associated with the station have varied. I've noted the figure as being $450 million, nearly $500 million, $600 million, and now we're hearing that the amount is $700 million. The way to improve the state's fiscal picture is to reign in costs that have spiraled out of control and ongoing costs at Secaucus Junction are further endangering the fiscal situation for New Jersey Transit. And, it would appear that the mindset needs to be altered as well.

The facility was never built with ongoing maintenance in mind, which means that there will be regularly incurred costs that could have been avoided with a few simple steps - namely building in catwalks or other structures that would have allowed workers easy access to the ceiling.

"Any large facility, like a sports arena or a convention hall, builds in simple, inexpensive ways of performing routine maintenance, but not this one, I guess," said Mahwah's Gene Corrado, who passes through the station twice a day.

Corrado still can't understand why NJ Transit never built a parking lot near the Frank R. Lautenberg Rail Station at Secaucus Junction. Others, like commuter James Donovan, are still angry about seldom-used New Jersey Turnpike exit 15X, which opened near the station last year.

"This is the most ridiculous way to change a light bulb that I've ever heard," said Donovan, of Glen Rock. "Are these the same people who built the exit ramp to nowhere?"

But NJ Transit and Control dismissed any notion that the cost or work involved was extreme.

Of course they don't. They don't have to pay for it. We do.