Governor's Demanded Audit of Port Authority Finds Need For Toll Hikes

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey recently underwent an outside audit as required by Governors Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo. They did so because of the fallout over a major toll and fare increase that went into effect earlier this year and follow-on hikes set for the next three Decembers as well as complaints that the agency was diverting funds for transportation projects to finish the World Trade Center project.

The audit report, prepared by the consulting firms Navigant Consulting Inc. and Rothschild Inc., finds that the Port Authority must raise tolls in order to maintain its credit rating and carry out infrastructure maintenance and upgrades over the next decade.

The report, prepared by the consulting firms Navigant Consulting Inc. and Rothschild Inc., lays out $26.9 billion in projects the Port Authority is poised to undertake through 2020 — everything from replacing the suspender ropes on the George Washington Bridge to raising the Bayonne Bridge and completing the World Trade Center. But it also identified about $44 billion in needs, including fixing aging terminals at Newark Liberty International and La Guardia airports.

To generate enough revenue to finance those projects, the report recommended that the agency attract private corporations to invest in joint projects and pursue aggressive cost-control measures, some of which Port Authority officials said they recently put in place. Port Authority officials said they would also pursue advertising revenue at its facilities to bring in more non-toll and fare money and would also continue to collect money owed by other government agencies and toll cheats.

The report mounted a strong defense of last year’s toll hikes at the agency’s bridges and tunnels, to $9.50 from $8 during peak travel times. They are scheduled to rise an additional 75 cents each December through 2015. Without those increases, the Port Authority would have had to cut $6 billion from its capital plan over the next decade, imperiling critical projects and its credit rating, the report said. Even with the toll hikes, the report said, the agency is losing money on its bridges, tunnels, trains and bus terminals. The report also encouraged the Port Authority to “educate the public” about tolls on some of the New York City-owned bridges linking Manhattan and its boroughs.

The Port Authority is responsible for infrastructure that is in many places approaching 80 years of age or more.

Bridges such as the Goethals and Outerbridge crossing need replacement due to their being functionally obsolete. The Bayonne Bridge must be raised to permit Super Panamax shipping to port facilities.

The George Washington Bridge needs upkeep, including replacing the suspenders that carry the bridge deck weight.

Airport terminals at JFK, LGA, and EWR are 52 years old and contribute to delays and bad customer experiences. The average age for PATH facilities is 72 years, and Port commerce facilities are 57 years old. The increasing age of the facilities means more must be spent to maintain a state of good repair, and that facilities need to be replaced or modernized to maintain competitive advantages over other facilities nationally and around the world.

The full report indicates $3.2 billion in capital construction for airport rehabilitation and improvement projects, focused on Newark Liberty's Terminal A, JFK's Terminal 4 and 5, and LaGuardia's entire terminal infrastructure.

Further, PATH would see another $2 billion in infrastructure projects, including extending rail platforms to accommodate 10-car trains, signal work, and tunnel modernization.

More than $4 billion would be spent on bridge-related projects, though the figure for raising the Bayonne Bridge appears to be 20% higher than the $1 billion costs previously acknowledged for that project. Also, the Goethals Bridge replacement span costs don't appear to show the full cost for that project - which are expected to be financed in a public-private partnership.

The report also indicates a negative free cash flow largely as a result of WTC construction, PATH, Ferry and Port facilities. This situation needs to be addressed all while maintaining the current level of service. At the same time, the bulk of the negative cash flow is the result of WTC construction, which means that the sooner the construction is completed, the sooner that the Port Authority will obtain revenues from WTC related facilities - the office tower rents, retail spaces, and taking construction costs off the books. The ongoing delays in construction have only made the Port Authority's financial situation worse, but it isn't sole reason. The Port's operations incur losses of $28 per container because the revenue stream from tenant rentals is insufficient to cover recurring capital costs, such as dredging and system upgrades. PATH loses about $3 per passenger, which is comparable to other mass transit systems although PATH doesn't get federal subsidies as seen in other mass transit systems.

Aviation facilities are the key generator of Port Authority revenues, with more than $20 in revenue per passenger, while bridges and tunnels generate $7.50 per vehicle.

An Unaffordable But Necessary Plan To Deal With NYC Metro Area Airport Congestion

The Port Authority commissioned a study to figure out how to reduce the massive airport congestion that the region currently experiences and is only expected to get worse in the coming decade.

The problem is one of cost. Massive costs.

The proposed solutions might be $15 billion or more in order to build new runways at JFK and Newark Liberty airports. Newark Liberty would require a massive reconstruction effort to demolish existing terminals and realign runways to permit the construction of a third runway along its north/south axis next to the existing two runways.

LaGuardia Airport would not get any additional runways since there is no room on its grounds.

So the study’s authors at the Manhattan-based Regional Plan Association are recommending $15 billion in overhauls at the three major airports, including construction of a third, longer runway at Newark to allow for more takeoffs and landings and, ultimately, to significantly reduce delays.

To make way for the new runway, however, all of Terminal B and portions of Terminals A and C would have to be demolished and rebuilt in some other configuration, according to the study commissioned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the three airports.

In addition to Newark, the report recommends a fifth runway be added at JFK. LaGuardia, which like Newark is plagued by poor on-time performance, has no room to expand, the report says.

Failing to overhaul the airports will stunt the region’s growth, resulting in the loss of business and job opportunities and forcing traveling public to seek other airports or other means of transportation, the study said.

"What’s at stake is 130,000 jobs, $16 billion in sales," said Jeffrey Zupan, a senior fellow at the plan association and co-author of the report. "If we don’t do the expansion, we’re leaving millions of people unserved. We’ve got to get started now,"

The report recommends redevelopment because there is no other location within 40 miles of Manhattan in which to build a new, major airport.

"The good thing about the Newark option is that you can do it totally within the Newark footprint," Zupan said.

The report does not say how long it would take to complete such a massive undertaking, and it’s not even certain whether a project with such a huge price tag would be approved by the governors of New Jersey and New York.

The airport proposal was unveiled as the Port Authority continues to experience recession-related revenue declines even as it confronts costly projects like redeveloping of the World Trade Center site, raising the Bayonne Bridge roadbed and replacing the Goethals Bridge.

The proposal notes that there are no locations within 40 miles of Manhattan that could support the construction of a new airport to relieve congestion at the existing airports. Newburgh's Stewart International Airport is 61 miles from Manhattan and that presents the most viable alternative only if high speed rail connections are established to speed access to the region's core. Alternatively, one might want to take a closer look at the Westchester County Airport in White Plains that has room to grow into neighboring Connecticut. At present, there are several golf courses adjacent to the airport that could make way for a significant expansion of the airport. I'm sure that the local community wouldn't appreciate the additional noise and congestion that the airport expansion might bring, but it might be a whole lot less costly than the rebuilding of Newark Liberty airport.

The JFK airport expansion could be done with less interruption and disruption of flight operations, particularly if the Port Authority decides to build a new runway adjacent to existing 13L/31R that could be built on landfill reclaimed from Jamaica Bay. Additional runways could be built on the other side of JFK airport adjacent to Rockaway Parkway, but that would require a realignment of that road and relocating the cargo operations of multiple carriers.

Newark Liberty would require a significant reconstruction of all of its airport operations to build a new runway parallel to its existing two main runways.

Further, the study notes that Newark's AirTrain is outmoded and should be replaced at some point in the future. The AirTrain has been a failure because it doesn't connect the terminals with the parking facilities, including long term parking and inhibits better utilization of facilities the way that the JFK AirTrain does. Instead, the proposal suggests expanding PATH to the airport, but that's just not a cost efficient alternative.

Another Plane Goosed Near LaGuardia Airport; Lands Safely

Thankfully no one was injured, but this is an all too common occurrence. A plane hit a goose on approach to land at LaGuardia Airport in NYC. The plane landed safely, but had to be towed to its gate.

Despite the deadly threat posed by these bird strikes, there are still animal rights nitwits who want to stop the City from gassing geese along the approaches to the local airports. How much more blood do they want on their hands?

I Can Sympathize

Having broken my own ankle at the end of March, I can truly sympathize with Sonia Sotomayor today. She broke her ankle after taking a tumble at LaGuardia Airport to catch a flight to Washington, DC to meet with Senators on Capitol Hill.

Like Sotomayor, I was able to get around and run errands while hobbling around. Expect Sotomayor to be hobbling around on crutches for a couple of days before she starts hobbling around on an orthopedic boot. She'll be back to her normal routine in about six weeks, which is the typical healing time, although I feel a twinge every now and then.

UPDATE:
Looks like she had a more significant fracture than I first thought (see the photo added). They've put her in a fiberglass cast, which suggests that it required more stabilization than a walking boot could provide.

New York Area Airports Lack Critical Safety Radar

The region's three major airports lack technology designed to prevent airplanes from colliding with each other, and it could be years before all of them have it, a lawmaker said yesterday.

La Guardia, John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International airports don't have the surface detection equipment technology that alerts air traffic controllers to potential collisions within five miles of an airport, including on runways, Senator Schumer said.

The airports remain at the bottom of the list to receive the new technology, and La Guardia will be among the last airports to receive it in December 2010, Mr. Schumer said.

Kennedy was slated to receive the new system in August of 2008 and Newark in July 2009, he said. Mr. Schumer's comments come three days after a plane taxied onto a runway where a plane was about to land at Newark Liberty. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating that incident, called an incursion.

Also last week, a congressional report said there was "a high risk of a catastrophic runway collision occurring" in the country because of poor leadership, unreliable technology and overworked air traffic controllers.

Mr. Schumer called on FAA officials to expedite the installation of the collision technology, which he said was particularly helpful in bad weather and at night, at New York area airports.

"As one of the busiest areas in the country, we should be at the top of the list when new technology is developed to make us safer," Mr. Schumer said. "On the heels of this week's scathing report, Thursday's near miss at Newark shows the FAA must not continue to drag its feet."

An FAA spokesman said the schedule to install the technology was based on several factors including how busy an airport is and the complexity of an airport's runway and taxiway infrastructure and procedures. Some airports received the technology ahead of New York's airports while others will get it later, an FAA spokesman, Jim Peters, said.

New York's three airports already have ground surveillance radar, although it doesn't offer as much detail about an aircraft's whereabouts as the new technology, Mr. Peters said.

Lawhawk has been writing about the problems at New York's three major airports. Before August 2008, when Kennedy Airport is slated to receive the new system, how many flights will pass through there? How many people will be put in danger? Why can't the system be installed in all three airports simultaneously?

And to turn this into a political debate -- Where is Hillary on this issue? New York's junior Senator seems to be quiet on every issue that truly effects New Yorkers. Now, I am not the biggest fan of Senator Schumer, but he is always outspoken about issues that matter to New Yorkers. He has been out front on gun control, ATM bank fees, port security, and aviation issues. Since Hillary's election I have not heard her speak out on any of these issues. The Country really needs to realize that she is ineffective, and would make a horrible President.