MTA East Side Access Schedule Delayed Again; Symptom of Larger Problems

While the MTA seems to be making incremental progress on carrying out routine maintenance using an expanded Fastrack program that shuts down entire segments of the subway system overnight during the week, its capital program remains in shambles.

In particular, the East Side Access program's cost has ballooned to $8.2 billion and the completion has been pushed back to 2019.

The LIRR extension to Grand Central Terminal may cost $920 million more than the MTA’s most recent estimate, officials said Monday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority also pushed back the East Side Access project’s expected completion date by three years to August 2019.

Officials cited the enormous complexity of a project that includes building new tunnels in Queens and Manhattan, and the reconfiguration of a massive juncture that’s being used by three different railroads.

But MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota also said authority staffers in the past had put forward unrealistic construction schedules and budgets.

“The era of underestimating the cost of big projects is over,” Lhota said after an MTA committee meeting. “We’re going to be realistic about the cost and we’re going to budget accordingly.”

That promise, however, may be of little comfort to Long Island commuters longing to take a train to Grand Central on the East Side of Manhattan rather than Penn Station.

“Frustration seems to be the commuters
’ daily lot,” said Mark Epstein, chairman of the Long Island Rail Road Commuters Council. “Fares are going up, service is cut, the commuter tax benefit is cut, and now ESA completion date pushed back yet again.”

That's completely unacceptable and the additional costs are being borne by an agency ill equipped to deal with the debt.

It should not be taking decades for incremental improvements to the subway system and mass transit. The blame isn't solely on the MTA; it's also on the contractors who underbid and underestimate the costs of the projects and know that as their costs balloon, they'll get picked up by the MTA and taxpayers.

There's no reason that construction costs for mass transit projects in New York City and the US in general should exceed those in Europe or Asia. We aren't getting the kind of value for the money spent. It means that projects take far longer to be completed, far fewer projects get undertaken, and the economy suffers.

Infrastructure is the backbone of the economy and failing to invest in the infrastructure has long term competitive costs. It means that other countries and cities around the world can gain a competitive advantage for everything from international shipping to affecting local businesses shipping cross-town. We need to radically rethink priorities on infrastructure and need a long term plan to reduce costs while expanding and improving existing infrastructure.

Congress, and particularly the GOP, in its myopic vision of trying to reduce debts without consideration of tax increases, is underfunding infrastructure projects across the nation and it is already having significant effects on the economy.

It should not take three days for a freight train to transit through Chicago, but because of the bottlenecks and grade-level crossings, that's precisely what's happening. It's quicker to walk across Chicago than for a freight train to make the trip.

Various ports around the nation are losing business to Canadian ports because they've undertaken dredging to deepen the ports or don't have structural impediments to bigger ships entering the ports. In the New York Metro area, the Port Authority is trying to fast track the Bayonne Bridge rehabilitation project that would increase the height of the bridge to allow post-Panamax ships to access the region's key ports in time to maintain or gain business when the new Panama Canal channel opens in 2014.

Other countries are racing ahead with new and improved infrastructure projects at a time when our nation is barely funding maintenance and rehabilitation of existing bridges, tunnels, rails, and even water/sewer projects.

That has to change.

As for the East Side Access, it should be noted that the delays and costs as noted by the MTA are now in line with the federal estimates given several years ago. How is it that the federal government had a better grasp of the costs than the MTA on its own project?

It should be a reminder too that when NJ Transit claimed that it could keep the costs for its ARC Tunnel project to under $10 billion, that it wasn't supported by the federal estimates, which ran as high as $12.8 billion - or $4 billion more than the $8.7 billion accepted cost for the project when Gov. Christie killed the project due to leaving New Jersey taxpayers on the hook for all the overruns.

MTA's East Side Access Project Faces New Delays

For those hoping that the MTA could get the East Side Access project on track, wonder no more. It will be seeing even more delays now that the construction has run into new troubles at the Sunnyside Yards.

It now appears Long Island Rail Road trains won’t be stopping at Grand Central Terminal until 2019.

That’s the word Tuesday from Joseph Lhota, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The MTA is building a new tunnel under the East River to allow LIRR trains access to Grand Central. All LIRR trains now go to Penn Station.

Lhota says there have been problems tunneling underneath a rail yard in Queens. The MTA has brought in experts from Europe to help with developing a plan going forward.

Expect that the cost for the project will also increase as a result of missed deadlines and additional costs in engineering around the problems. The problems stem from having to deal with the disposal of contaminated soils and the ground in the construction site is soft rather than rocky. It's interesting that the problems aren't with tunneling under Grand Central Terminal and Manhattan, but in the vicinity of Sunnyside Yards.

Once East Side Access (allowing LIRR trains to access Grand Central Terminal rather than going to NY Penn Station) is completed, it should reduce commute times from Long Island to the East Side of Manhattan by 40 minutes and expand capacity of the LIRR by 41%.

The project began in 2006 and was originally scheduled for completion in 2012, but delays have pushed the completion and commencement of revenue service back to 2014, 2016, 2018, and now 2019. As of 2011, the expected cost of the project was $7.3 billion with a 2016 completion date (which is $1 billion higher than the costs estimated at the outset in 2006).

The latest news will surely mean that the budget will continue rising upwards.

MTA Decides To Fast Track East Side Access Project

One has to wonder why the Department finally came around to fast tracking the long-delayed East Side Access project considering that such a move would have helped save costs over the life of the project and would have provided much-needed facilities access for commuters.

The East Side Access project allows LIRR trains to access Grand Central Terminal through newly constructed tunnels bored beneath the East River from Sunnyside Yards. Previously, LIRR trains would have to go to either Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn or Penn Station on the West Side of Manhattan. For those commuting to Midtown on the East Side, it would result in a far longer commute that was less reliable.

By building the East Side Access, LIRR and MTA officials could improve reliability, expand commuter options, and upgrade facilities at Grand Central Terminal.

The scope of the project is daunting in its complexity:

Upon completion of the project, which is expected to happen by 2016, the new terminal will have eight new station tunnels — each with a diameter of 22 feet — will expand the total number of tracks from 67 to 75, and will add another four platforms taking the total number in the Terminal to 48.

A new mezzanine will provide stores, restaurants, bars, food halls, public amenities and other facilities.

The tunnel length will stretch approximately 7,200 feet — from 37th St. up to 63rd St. The area of the mezzanine will take up to 60,000 square feet, an MTA spokesman said.

The lower platform levels will take up to nearly 48,000 square feet, while the upper platform sections will measure out to 46,000 square feet and the concourse itself will take up 350,000 square feet.

The project is considered perhaps the most ambitious and challenging one undertaken by the MTA in recent years, and comes as other major transportation projects across the city have been mired with budget constraints, including Moynihan Station, which is one day destined to become a gleaming rail hub.

Not for nothing, the project has been behind schedule for the past couple of years and wasn't expected to be completed before 2016. Now, it appears that the project is on schedule for completion in 2013.

Yet, when the project was originally conceived, it was expected to be in revenue service in 2012 (that would be this year). The Federal Transit Administration believed that the project would not be completed before the fourth quarter of 2018 as the MTA noted a 2016 completion date just a few months ago. And it doesn't begin to go into the spiraling costs of construction. East Side Access is now expected to cost $7.4 billion when completed, though the FTA thinks it will be over $8 billion. The project was originally sold to the public on a cost basis of $3 billion when initially proposed to more than $7 billion.

Part of the issue is that the costs are purposefully minimized so as to get the project started, and additional funding will come later. It also is the result of unanticipated issues that arise during construction and other related issues. However, it is also the result of the MTA inability to manage projects of this size and scope and keep them on budget and on schedule. Mind you that the Sunnyside Yards are the focus of several high profile projects to upgrade rail access in and out of New York City (upgrading and separating the interlocking to permit high speed rail for Amtrak to Boston, additional capacity for subways and commuter rail, and the East Side Access project).

It is curious that the MTA now finds that they can proceed with the fast tracking of East Side Access at this time.

MTA Hits Up New York City For $250 Million To Continue Capital Projects

The MTA, which announced its intentions to raise fares twice in the next few years has now gone with hat in hand to New York City to ask for $250 million to complete two of the big capital projects that are still underway: the Second Avenue Subway and the East Side Access project.

The agency's theory is that with real estate taxes likely to rise after the projects are completed, the City would recoup any outlays and then some. In effect, this is essentially a roundabout call for tax increment financing to get the deal done (leveraging future tax revenues to pay for capital projects).

The problem is that the City doesn't exactly have the money to spare, and neither does the state. These projects must get completed and delays end up costing everyone billions more down the road.

However, the MTA needs to show that it can control costs on its capital projects better than it has done to date. Had it been able to keep within budget on existing projects like Fulton Street, the 2d Avenue Subway or the South Ferry projects, the agency would have had sufficient funds available to complete the two other projects with money to spare.

This goes back to the way that the projects are bid and calculated but highlights a further need to contain costs within the capital budget to make sure that critical projects are completed on budget and on time.