Fulton Center, 1WTC, and a Malfunctioning Scaffold

This past week was a busy one in Lower Manhattan. Fulton Center finally opened after years of delays and cost overruns. Parts of the station have been open for some time now, but the central feature - the oculus that lets light stream down into the heart of the station - is now revealed, and the escalators and other areas are now open. Upper floors, however, are still off limits as they wont open until businesses move into retail spaces on those upper floors.

The Fulton Center (previously called the Fulton Street Transit Hub), was meant to untangle and better connect a number of subway lines that were built at different times by different competing subway companies at the beginning of the 20th century. Some were built at different depths, and some cross over other lines in a tangle that would make Escher blush.

The MTA did manage to improve the flow between some of the key lines, including the A/C and the 4/5, so that's a big improvement.

What was left on the table is that while the oculus is already an architectural darling, the MTA could have used the space above the station to sell air rights that could help defray the costs for the station or permit construction of other capital projects elsewhere.

What follows is a series of photos taken around Fulton Center:

Interior as seen from Broadway and Fulton escalator bank

Arches and architectural detail of the Corbin building access to Fulton Center

Looking up at the Oculus

Retail space along the street level of the Fulton Center

Looking up and through the Oculus

Information bank at Fulton Center

After viewing Fulton Center, I walked over to the WTC memorial to shoot some more photos, and a dramatic sky didn't hurt either:

1WTC shrouded in breaking clouds. Note that scaffold on the south side. I'll come back to that later.

Yellow roses adorn the names of those who served in the military and died on 9/11 as part of Veterans' Day remembrances.

Looking towards the 9/11 Museum, the WTC transit hub, and 3WTC. Note that the spikes are nearly completely installed.

Still my favorite view of the WTC - looking up the South side of 1WTC. Note the window washing scaffold high up in the center of the photo. This photo was taken 12:41PM. I didn't know it at the time, but within minutes, that scaffold would suffer a major malfunction requiring a high level FDNY emergency rescue operation more than 600 feet in the air.

Scaffolds on the NW corner of 1WTC.

Scaffolds and a hatch to allow a scaffold to deploy for the lower floors.

The damaged scaffold dangling at a sharp angle; this was taken at 1:25PM, about an hour before the rescue was completed.

 The two men aboard the scaffold were rescued unharmed, and within 48 hours the window that had to be broken out to carry out the rescue had been replaced. The investigation into why the scaffold failed is underway.

Sandy Related Repairs to Affect LIRR and Amtrak Service for Years

New Yorkers have been trying to adjust to the new normal of MTA repairs to tunnels that were flooded by the storm surge from Superstorm Sandy. It included a 15-month closure of the Montague tunnel that affected many living in Brooklyn. There have been scattered closures to other tunnels and rerouted service elsewhere in the subway system, but now comes word that Amtrak is about to do its own remediation of the East River tunnels.

These tunnels service not only Amtrak, but LIRR and NJ Transit. They connect Penn Station with Long Island through the Sunnyside Yards and Harold Interlocking. Amtrak has to take two of the tunnels out of service for a year each. This will reduce the service capacity by 25% (1 out of four tunnels will be out of service at any time during the duration of the project that is expected to start next year).

The reconstruction will be similar to the work done on the Montague tunnels. It will include rebuilding the bench walls that include cable conduits for signals and power, plus railbed replacement and other work that can't be done while the tunnel is active.

The MTA and Amtrak were able to get service restored, but have been seeing an increased amount of service disruptions due to corrosion of equipment in the affected tunnels. That's why this full rehabilitation must get done.

But the East River tunnels are the easy part.

Amtrak has said that they must do the same with the Hudson River tunnels.

There are only two tunnels under the Hudson, and each are over 100 years old. They are functionally obsolete and need major rehabilitation, but that work can't be done until additional capacity is added.

After Gov. Christie cancelled the fully funded ARC tunnel project, that left a gaping hole in capacity expansion. Amtrak proposed a better project, Gateway, that would directly link in with NY Penn Station and allow through trains to run and high speed rail once service improvements elsewhere in the system are made.

Gateway is more than a decade away from seeing the light of day due to lack of funding. So New Jersey residents will be suffering with service delays for the foreseeable future.

Now some will point to Christie being short sighted in his cancellation of the project, but it was the right thing to do because NJ Transit has never met a capital project it couldn't complete overbudget and years after the scheduled deadlines. Cost overruns were likely to be in the $1-2 billion range, and even the FTA warned about the cost containment.

Gateway allows more capacity to the entire system - NJ Transit, Amtrak, and LIRR. ARC would have had limited capacity improvements for NJ Transit since the New York terminus was just that - a terminus. There was no place to store additional trains for rush hour, reducing actual customer capacity on the trains that would run to New Jersey.

The fact that we need to get additional capacity to allow for both growth in customer demand and to fix existing infrastructure is well established. What's missing is the lack of support in New York and New Jersey to find the funding for this critical work. That falls on both Gov. Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Both have shown indifference to mass transit and infrastructure beyond a few car-centric projects like the new Tappan Zee bridge in New York and the Pulaski Skyway rehabilitation and NJ Turnpike expansion projects in New Jersey.

This has to change in order to improve the economic competitiveness of the region against other world-class cities.

The Failure of the WTC PATH Hub

Construction of the Port Authority's PATH Transit Hub is still underway and Santiago Calatrava's design shows its final form, even as the cost pushes past a staggering $4 billion. That's nearly $2 billion over the original budget estimate. These inflated costs have sapped the Port Authority's ability to build new infrastructure in the region, which is its core mission. Instead, the agency has poured billions into a project that doesn't add any cross-river capacity.

Set aside the architectural features of the exterior or the fact that the Port Authority is boasting about a transit hall that is larger than that of Grand Central Terminal in Midtown. I think that the design will ultimately be an iconic site in Lower Manhattan and become one of the more photographed sites in Manhattan, which is saying something.

But the visuals can't overcome the serious flaws to the project that will saddle future commuters for generations to come.

The view from Fulton Street.

This is first and foremost a transit hub. So, the first question to be asked is whether it does that job well.

I think I know the answer to this, even though the permanent design is still being unveiled in phases.

The design is a failure.

This week is proof of that.

The new terminal cannot handle counter-commutes. It just can't do it.

The new platforms are all shiny and clad in white marble and the steel ribs that peek out are also white, so you can be forgiven for the impression that you've walked into an Apple store with all the gleaming whiteness and sleek curves.

But getting to the platform itself is a comedy of bad design.

The mezzanine level for the PATH terminal; there is marble as far as the eye can see.

There is currently one platform open, and there are two elevators, which is a significant improvement over the original station or even the temporary station built after the attacks but that's the extent of the positive news. The problem is that the Port Authority decided in its infinite wisdom to build two escalators that funnel into the center of the future transit hall. There are three sets of stairs. During the past two days, it has been next to impossible to get up the stairs or on to the platform level because there simply isn't any room for people to go.

The escalators preclude any counter-commuting. You are forced to go to the stairs at the far ends of the platforms, but considering that we're talking about full trains, there's no extra room for people to squeeze through to get either up or down, so it takes extra time to navigate through the PATH platform level.

That's inexcusable. The Port Authority chose to install costly escalators that they don't even operate full time (they shut down during midday) because of the cost, rather than stairs that would be much more amenable to counter commuting. 

What's sad is that it's actually easier to get from the platform levels to the mezzanine level from the old temporary platforms than it is from the gleaming new platform A. 

It's part of the mindset about the Port Authority thinking only in one direction, and not realizing that there is a significant number of people who commute from Manhattan to New Jersey for their jobs. It's a serious oversight and one that should be corrected with the remaining platforms, but I doubt that they're going to make those changes, even though it would be the prudent thing to do. 

So, who to blame for this? I have to put the blame squarely on the Port Authority, which apparently never bothered to look at how people actually commute, and what can happen when there are service disruptions elsewhere in the system.

The Port Authority loves to claim that there's going to be 250,000 pedestrians using the PATH hub daily, and that there are 35,000 commuters. They can't handle those numbers, and this week shows that the new hub isn't quite up to the task either.

Christie Administration Now Probed on Port Authority Funding of Pulaski Skyway Rehab

Media outlets continue reporting that Gov. Chris Christie and his administration is being investigated for how the Port Authority funded the Pulaski Skyway rehabilitation project.

New Jersey got the Port Authority to shift funds originally meant for the ARC tunnel to go to rebuild the Pulaski Skyway. That happened when Gov. Christie cancelled the ARC project in 2010, and it's a decision I agreed with because NJ Transit could never keep to a capital budget and New York was not contributing to a project that would benefit immensely from the added tunnels, as well as the fact that the project design was flawed with no through-running trains to Sunnyside Yards for maximizing train access into Manhattan during the morning rush hour and additional trains for the PM rush back to New Jersey.

The Pulaski Skyway was one of the first superhighways designed and opened in 1932. It connected Newark to Jersey City across the Hackensack River and Meadowlands, along with providing direct access to the Holland Tunnel. The bridge was determined to need massive rehabilitation, particularly after the collapse of the bridge in Minnesota a few years back.

The rehabilitation project is indeed a worthy and needed project, but New Jersey didn’t want to raise its own taxes or fees to cover it. That would have put Gov. Christie in a tough position had he wanted to run for President. So, it appears that Gov. Christie and his appointees at the Port Authority got the Port Authority to issue a ruling that the Skyway was an access road to the Lincoln Tunnel, which would be a valid use of Port Authority funds. But the reality is that it’s a stretch to call it a Lincoln Tunnel access road since it directly leads to the Holland.

This has consequences for the bond offerings by the Port Authority since it would be a material misrepresentation of what the bond offerings were for.

Now, a complicating factor is that the Port Authority doesn’t answer to Christie alone. It’s a bistate agency and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo would ordinarily need to sign off on the deal through his representatives on the Board.

Bridgegate showed how the system inside the Port Authority has completely broken down and how New York's appointees on the authority were outside the loop for the GWB lane closures. Is it possible they’re outside the loop on the Skyway funding deal?

I consider that possible but highly implausible because all the major news outlets reported on how Port Authority funds were going to be reallocated to do the Pulaski project. That would seemingly implicate Cuomo as well. These issues should have been raised back then and there were questions about how the money was reallocated, though no one appeared to have raised the question about whether the reallocation was legal from a securities offering perspective.

How wouldn’t it implicate Cuomo? If the New Jersey cronies were the ones who ginned up the legal authority to shift the funds, ignoring other counsel, then the prosecutors might be able to isolate the culpability for the deal to Christie and his allies inside the Port Authority.

Frankly, the way Gov. Cuomo has screwed with regional transit and played games with MTA funding, I wouldn't be shocked if both were involved in these actions and that there was a quid pro quo for the Port Authority to spend a similar amount of funds on New York based projects.

Turning the Screws; Prosecutors Looking at Indicting Gov. Christie's Inner Circle

Esquire Magazine is reporting that the federal prosecutor in New Jersey, Paul Fishman, is preparing to indict four of Gov. Chris Christie's inner circle over their actions relating to Bridgegate.
The indictments are pending against Bill Baroni and David Wildstein, who were at the Port Authority, Bridget Kelly and Bill Stepien, who were in the governor's office.

You could see the writing on the wall now for months, but Fishman is actually looking at getting evidence of wrongdoing by Christie himself.

Fishman’s challenge is to nail down specific criminal charges on several fronts -- the diversion of Port Authority money to fund New Jersey road and bridge projects; the four-day rush-hour closures of George Washington Bridge lanes in Ft. Lee; and a web of real-estate deals spun by David Samson, long a Christie crony, when he chaired the PA’s Board of Commissioners as Christie’s appointee. (One such deal, a stalled office-tower development in Hoboken, New Jersey, is central to a claim that Christie’s lieutenant governor told the town’s mayor that the state would withhold Hurricane Sandy relief aid from Hoboken if the mayor didn’t sign off on the development project.)

Whatever Christie says or does -- and whatever potential donors or Jimmy Fallon and his viewers think -- the question that truly matters is whether Fishman’s pursuit leads to the governor himself. Christie’s Port appointees -- not only Samson, but former PA Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni and his oddball sidekick David Wildstein -- all face near-certain indictment and are being pressed to hand up Christie, as is the governor’s former chief counsel, Charlie McKenna.

Wildstein, portrayed as the mastermind behind Ft. Lee’s traffic problems, has made proffers to Fishman’s investigators -- hoping to trade information to the prosecutor in exchange for gentler legal treatment -- but Fishman has cut no deals with anyone so far, and the looming indictments have encouraged Christie’s PA appointees to sing. “Don’t underestimate what Wildstein has on Christie,” says one source. “And Wildstein and Baroni have both turned on Samson. If Samson doesn't give Fishman Christie, Samson is toast.”

Bridgegate opened a window into the inner workings at the Port Authority and the New Jersey governor's office, and the back-room deals that exceeded the authority of the bistate agency to fund projects outside its scope.

In particular, I'm talking about the Pulaski Skyway reconstruction. It was a much needed project, but Gov. Christie didn't want to use state money (which would have required increasing taxes/fees in the state to cover the empty transportation trust fund). So, his office concocted a rationale for using the former ARC tunnel funds that the Port Authority had set aside to use on the skyway reconstruction.

So, the indictments are all pending, but the question is who will crack first. My bet is still on Bridget Kelly, who was the only one of the four to actually be fired. The rest were "retired" and allowed to resign with full benefits. That would lead to a whole lot of resentment against the Governor.

But there's an additional wrinkle, and that's David Samson, who was also at the Port Authority. Samson is the big fish that would lead to Christie himself. If Samson turn's on Christie, then that would likely lead to indictments against Christie himself.

Of course, it's rather ironic that Fishman is Christie's successor at the federal prosecutor's office, and that Christie used similar actions to indict corrupt politicians while federal prosecutor.

Time To Fix New Jersey's Broken Transportation Policy

Gov. Chris Christie refuses to fix the state's chronically underfunded transportation system out of the state's own revenues. This includes roads, bridges, transit, and rail systems. Rather than increase the state's low motor fuel taxes and risk the ire of Republicans who would complain about the tax hike, he's used his sway at the Port Authority to use money originally tasked to building a new rail tunnel into Manhattan to fix several bridges that aren't part of the Port Authority's mission, including the historic Pulaski Skyway.

Fixing those bridges were overdue, but it means that funds that should have gone to expanding the state's crumbling infrastructure were instead devoted to projects that should have been covered by the state's transportation trust fund but for the fact that the fund is essentially bankrupt with no relief in sight.

Christie orchestrated a fare and toll hike at the Port Authority and then turned around to use some of those funds to go and fix the Pulaski Skyway, Wittpenn Bridge, and several other roads that are considered approaches to the Holland Tunnel, even though they are miles from the facility itself.

That's why New Jersey residents need to take matters into their own hands. If Gov. Christie wont increase the motor fuel tax or raise revenues to dedicate to transportation matters in the state, then voters need to petition to amend the state constitution to raise the needed revenue for dedicated purposes.

By fixing the state's own revenue situation, it can help get the Port Authority to refocus on the bistate projects it was designed to do. It would free up revenues to maintain and expand its facilities, including the Port Authority Bus Terminal, contemplate assisting in the construction of the Gateway Tunnel to double capacity on the Northeast Corridor, and expand PATH to Newark Airport while keeping its infrastructure in a state of good repair.

Currently, New Jersey imposes a 10.5 cent per gallon gasoline tax and 13.5 cent per gallon diesel fuel tax. It's a rate that is unchanged since 1989, and the purchasing power has seriously eroded. Together, they generate about $540 million annually. This amount has actually fallen in recent years because of declining driving and increased fuel economy.

If we assume that drivers will maintain their current amount of driving, a tax increase of $.10 per gallon on each of the gasoline and diesel tax would potentially raise about $500 million annually. It would not only replenish the transportation trust fund, but it would enable the state to fund sorely needed road and rail projects without resorting to deficit funding, fiscal gimmicks, and raiding the Port Authority to do projects.

To this end, voters should consider the following ballot question:

Constitutional amendment to set a state minimum wage with annual cost of living increases.
Do you approve amending the State Constitution to set a state motor fuel tax equal to 20.5 cents per gallon for gasoline and 23.5 cents per gallon for diesel and other motor fuels. The amendment also requires bi-annual increases in that rate if there are annual increases in the cost of living.
Yes
No

The interpretive statement would run something along the lines of:
This amendment to the State Constitution sets the State gasoline and motor fuel taxes at a level sufficient to fund state transportation projects. Half the funds would be dedicated to road, bridge, and tunnel projects across the state, while the other half of the funds would be devoted to supporting mass transit projects, including NJ Transit operations that have the effect of reducing motor vehicle usage, congestion, and pollution statewide. The level of the tax would be adjusted every other year to account for cost of living adjustments.

Residents know that the state's roads, bridges, and tunnels, are a mess, but Gov. Christie refuses to take the necessary actions to improve the structural problems with how the state funds its transportation and infrastructure budgets. Putting the question to voters would go a long way to fixing the problems.

For those concerned that the tax would be an economic hit, one should also count the economic harm done by having a crumbling infrastructure, where roads and bridges can no longer handle modern traffic loads, road damage to vehicles costs drivers hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in damage, and the state can't address its backlog of critical projects that need adequate funding.

The tax increase proposed would still mean that motor fuel purchased in New Jersey is cheaper than those of all the neighboring states by a wide margin. Including federal tax of 18.4 cents, New Jersey regular fuel costs motorists 33 cents a gallon in taxes overall. In Pennsylvania, it’s about 60 cents, and in New York nearly 70 cents, the group says. The 10 cent hike would still mean that New Jersey drivers would pay nearly 30 cents less per gallon than New York and 17 cents less than Pennsylvania.

Time To Eliminate Law Enforcement Responsibilities From the Port Authority

That's the video taken from one of the BASE jumpers who jumped from the top of 1WTC last September.

That incident, plus the more recent incident involving a teen climbing all the way to the top of the spire without anyone noticing anything wrong, shows how porous the WTC site is and how ineffective Port Authority security truly is.

I get how security can't be 100% perfect, but the Port Authority has made a show of how much security is there. It's a facade. They spent money on cameras, but didn't bother to install them.

They will repeatedly stop people attempting to enter the PATH but it's a superficial show and is hardly a deterrent when the search takes place at the base of the escalator bank.

Their police force is among the most highly compensated in the NYC metro area, and yet the site has repeatedly been entered by persons who don't belong. It is past time to turn over security at the WTC, and other Port Authority sites to the local law enforcement agencies, particularly the NYPD in NYC. There's nothing that the PAPD can do that the NYPD can't do - and the NYPD can do it better, and for far lower cost to taxpayers/riders/toll payers.

Eliminate the PAPD altogether. Consolidate law enforcement responsibilities in the local agencies and grant the NYPD and the New Jersey local law enforcement responsibilities and jurisdiction to handle the bistate crossings.

The PAPD was established because there are bistate bridges and tunnels, and this gets around the jurisdiction issues, but there are far too many problems with the PAPD that can't be solved with the existing system. The politicization of the Port Authority is a big reason. That politicization includes the Gov. Christie Bridgegate (GWB vendetta against Fort Lee Mayor for not endorsing him in a surefire reelection), and Gov. Cuomo and Christie's manipulation of a recent toll hike to make the governors look good even though they were approving massive toll and fare hikes.

Dismantling the bistate agency isn't going to happen anytime soon, not when both governors continue using the agency for their political purposes, but there has to be more accountability with the agency. Security problems at the WTC are only the latest issue. Cost controls on WTC reconstruction have long shown that the agency isn't interested in fiscal responsibility when they can get tolling and fares to cover any overruns. The agency is planning a vast capital program over the next decade, including rebuilding two bridges (Outerbridge and Bayonne) and building two new spans (new Goethals), plus major rehabilitation of the Lincoln Tunnel approach and the GWB. PATH is also getting expanded to Newark Liberty airport, but it doesn't appear that cost containment is in the picture, especially with the WTC PATH transit hub. And because there isn't sufficient cost control, money that could go towards other major capital projects is sucked up by the projects already in the pipeline.

Removing or at least seriously reducing the law enforcement responsibility will free up more money to do what the agency was intended to do in the first place - build transit infrastructure in the NYC metro area. It would help refocus the agency on its core mission.

WTC Rebuilding Update - An Expensive Update

The Port Authority continues building the WTC PATH transit hub, and have opened up the first platform of the permanent station. If you were wondering what a $4 billion transit hub can look like, this is what we're getting:





There's wall to wall marble. Everywhere. On the floors of the mezzanine. On the walls. It's omnipresent. The striking Calatrava designed arches and steel components swoop along underground, just as surely as the above ground components are taking shape.

I actually think the below-ground design is likely to age better than the above-ground terminal, which looks like a skeleton or a stegosaurus. The New York Times' David Dunlap panned the efforts thus far.

The Port Authority chose Santiago Calatrava to build the transit hub.

They had $2.2 billion to make this happen. The cost is now $4 billion, and likely to be more than that. We're talking twice as expensive, and that's money that could have gone to extend the 2d Avenue Subway for the Phase 2, extend PATH to Newark Airport, or the LIRR to lower Manhattan. Instead, we've got a glorious transit station that will serve about 50,000 people daily (I'm not counting the connections that have been built to the Fulton Center, which includes the Dey Street Connector).

They blew past the $2.2 billion and never sought to implement the cost controls they claimed they would. That isn’t on Calatrava. That part is on the Port Authority. They chose a design that was far too complex for what is a moderate use station (the original design called for a movable oculus, and that was dropped pretty quickly – about the only good move the Port Authority made here).

But Calatrava isn’t blameless either. His design puts form over function by a wide margin, and his vision constrained the Port Authority once things got underway.

As it is, I think that the actual access to the platforms is inadequate considering the size of the platforms. There is a constant bottleneck at the stairs/escalators. The stairs feel narrower than those at the temporary platforms, and that means people trying to get down to the platform choke the flow even further.

You would have thought passenger flow would have been a paramount concern, but it appears to have been an afterthought. But at least the escalators talk incessantly about not letting children ride alone, not walking or running up the escalators, and holding the handrails.

The materials chosen are just the outward symbol of excess spending, but it’s the execution of the station that is the most troubling aspect. Calatrava thinks that if only more money were spent, he’d get what he envisioned.

What riders and the PANY should be asking is how did we spend this much to get a station that falls short in so many ways. There are so many missed opportunities here, and we're stuck with a design that is too costly and doesn't live up to the expectations.

Still, I imagine that once the main hall is built, I might warm up to the design, but for now, it looks like the Port Authority and Calatrava did a poor job of keeping costs down – and that controlling costs was never part of the bargain.

Meet the New Boss; Same as the Old Boss

James Weinstein is finally out as the head of New Jersey Transit. After the massive debacle of allowing his agency's rail fleet be flooded in Hoboken and Meadows rail yards during Hurricane Sandy, you would have thought he should have been fired for all the damage sustained to the rail fleet.

You would be wrong. Governor Chris Christie signaled his support for Weinstein and never sought to get to the bottom of why the rail fleet was positioned in the vulnerable areas. At first, NJ Transit claimed that they didn't think those areas would flood as it had not been in their experience during more than 30 years of operation. Then they said that they didn't have anywhere else to move the equipment and that they didn't expect the flooding.

Both points were debunked after The Record revealed that the NJ Transit disaster preparation plan included moving the rail fleet to higher ground, including in Waldwick. That would have saved significant numbers of locomotives and railcars, allowing NJ Transit to resume service much faster. It took months before anything resembling a pre-storm schedule was in place. That's tens of thousands of commuters inconvenienced, lost economic value, and in the end Gov. Christie tried to blame some low-level employee for taking unilateral action and claimed that he couldn't be fired because of civil service rules (NJ Transit doesn't have those rules).



After that debacle, you'd think that NJ Transit would be more contrite and understanding? You'd be wrong. They, along with the organizers of the Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium consistently told fans that they should take the train to the game because there weren't enough spots available for vehicles, and that you couldn't walk into the stadium due to security concerns.

Well, wouldn't you know it? The fans actually listened to all the warnings and they took mass transit. They blew past the organizers' estimates. In fact, they nearly tripled the organizers' estimates, and nearly doubled NJ Transit estimates.

That wouldn't be bad, except that the Meadowlands rail line didn't have the capacity to move that kind of number of fans. That's due in part to design, and in part to the agency's failure to have contingency plans in effect and to carry out the contingency plan.

There was apparently a plan to have buses on standby to help reduce the load on the rail service to Secaucus, but no one thought to activate it in a timely manner. That meant that there were fans who waited hours to clear the stadium. It was inexcusable.

Now, you might be wondering why this is a big deal when you can drive to a ballgame at one of the major stadiums and it could take you an hour to get out of the parking lots. That's true. You can often have delays getting out of the stadium, but those parking lots frequently have multiple egress points and distribute the vehicles onto different roads to disperse. That isn't possible with the rail service, which concentrates the passenger load onto a rail service.

Part of this has to do with the design of the stadium mass transit facilities, the Meadowlands spur line, and capacities at both Secaucus and the Meadowlands.

Well, the debacle at the Super Bowl led to Weinstein's resignation. He wasn't fired. He deserved to be fired - for Sandy. He deserved to be fired for the Super Bowl failures, but was allowed to resign, allowing him to take his pension/benefits with him. How nice of the Governor to protect his people like that.

Weinstein's failures shouldn't have been particularly surprising, given that he was in charge of the NJ MVC emissions testing program that was an absolute debacle. That $500 million contract with Parsons was a total mess, and he was allowed to continue as head of the Department of Transportation despite being integral to overseeing the program.

Now that Weinstein is behind NJ Transit, who's coming in to replace him?

Veronique Hakim, who is now head of the NJ Turnpike Authority. It's not particularly surprising that Gov. Christie is moving around officials from one state agency to another, but anyone who thinks that Hakim will do better than Weinstein ought to bear a few things in mind.

Prior to going to the Turnpike Authority, she was at the MTA as head of capital construction. During her stint there, she never met a program that she could keep on time or on budget. That includes post-9/11 work to enhance security at MTA facilities across the region. That should be a warning sign considering that NJ Transit is embarking on a program to rebuild after Sandy, including new rail yards on higher ground, improved survivability of equipment, and we need to be prepared for the inevitable cost overruns and excuses.

We must demand better of NJ Transit, and of Gov. Christie.

It's Time For New Jersey Transit To Eliminate Midland Avenue Grade Crossing

For the second time in two weeks, a crash at Midland Avenue on the Bergen Line snarled commuter traffic during rush hour.

This time, I got an up close and personal view, since it was my train that struck a vehicle that was unlawfully in the crossing when the signal gates came down.

The collision occurred shortly before 6PM, and we sat on the train for a little more than an hour before a rescue train pulled alongside and took on the nearly 800 passengers on board our train.

This is a collision that didn't have to happen.

I've written about this particular location numerous times before.

The first time, I wrote about my experience being on the rescue train that picked up passengers from the train that struck a vehicle in 2009. Since then, there have been numerous incidents at Midland Avenue, and there doesn't appear to be any sign that NJ Transit or Elmwood Park are going to adjust the crossing to make it safer.

It happened again in 2010.

It happened in February 2012 as well.

This is the most dangerous crossing for NJ Transit and is repeatedly the scene of collisions. You would think that NJ Transit and transit officials from Elmwood Park would look to reduce the chances of collisions there.

You'd be wrong.

They've done little to resolve the problem.

That has to change - NJ Transit has been lucky that no one has died in any of these crossing incidents. The next time we might not be so lucky - a vehicle could result in a derailment and significant casualties could be the result.

So, what can NJ Transit and the town do about this?


View Larger Map

That's a map of the vicinity and Market Street is the only safe crossing in the vicinity.

There's really just one way to improve safety here. That would be to eliminate it altogether. NJ Transit should work with the town to direct traffic along Midland Avenue to Erie Avenue and then cross the tracks at a perpendicular crossing at Market Street. That's a whole lot safer than the current situation where traffic can back up and cars are stuck in no-man's land behind a closed gate.

But it appears that no one is willing to consider that particular move.

Lesser alternatives might involve restricting traffic to one-way but this crossing also involves elevation changes to go along with the odd-angled crossing. Adding additional striping and lighting and gates has done nothing to improve the safety here.

That's why the only remaining solution needs to be instituted before someone gets killed here.

UPDATE:
Turns out that the driver of the car was issued multiple summonses for careless driving and interference with transportation.

It was not clear why the motorist, identified as Rakesh Sharma, stopped his 2008 Mercedes on the tracks at the Midland Avenue grade crossing, according to NJ Transit spokesman William Smith. The sedan was stopped when the gates and signals went off, he added.

Sharma was alone in the car when the train crashed into its driver’s side, but not hurt in the 5:45 p.m. collision, the spokesman said. None of the 800 people aboard the Bergen County Line train were injured.

Heads Roll at Port Authority Over GWB Traffic Jam

The Port Authority is a bistate agency that handles interstate transit projects between New York and New Jersey. Its top officials are nominated by the governors of New York and New Jersey. Back in September, David Wildstein headed up a supposed traffic study that limited local traffic from entering the George Washington Bridge to a single toll lane. That compared to three toll lanes previously.

The "study" lasted several days, before it was put to an end. The fallout from the traffic jam that left Fort Lee's downtown paralyzed for hours each day and threatened public safety to the point that fire engines, police cars, and ambulances were stuck with no way to get to their destinations. There was no good response from the Port Authority as it stonewalled at every opportunity. It then took the state legislature to subpoena officials to begin to get to the bottom of the story.

Those involved in setting this up instructed anyone involved not to tell anyone outside the agency, because it would have serious fallout. They were right, of course, but not in the way they thought.

The fallout from the study continues today, with Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey firing Bill Baroni, the Executive Director of the Port Authority. Christie's trying to frame this as a routine move, even as acknowledging that the traffic moves were improperly done and that one thing has nothing to do with the other:

Christie’s appointees say the lane closures were part of a traffic study, but they have admitted they did not follow normal protocol for conducting such a study.

The Republican governor today agreed that the lane closures – which jammed the town’s traffic for hours each morning -- were not conducted properly.

“When mistakes are made, people have to be held accountable for them,” said Christie.

Critics have suggested the lane closures were a political move by Christie’s appointees after the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee chose not to endorse Christie during the gubernatorial election.

Christie dismissed those allegations as “a whole lot of hullabaloo” and insisted that Baroni’s resignation is not a result of the controversy. He said Baroni, who has worked at the Port Authority for four years, was already planning to resign.

“Four years at the Port Authority as [deputy executive director] is enough for anybody,” Christie said. The governor said he has not directly spoken with Baroni recently.

Baroni, a former state senator, did not attend the news conference, and he did not respond to a request for comment.

In his place, Christie is appointing Deb Gramiccioni, his deputy chief of staff for policy and planning. Gramiccioni has a reputation for stamping out wasteful government spending and going after public corruption.

It certainly appears that the decision was politically motivated to go after Fort Lee. The hearings so far have indicated that there was no plan for how to address the closure, no warning to commuters, and that the effect of the study could have been done with a computer simulation, avoiding the problem altogether.

No one specifically said it was politically motivated, but the reading between the lines is highly suggestive.

The alternative is that there was gross incompetence.

That Christie canned Baroni today, and accepted the resignation of David Wildstein effective end of the year, also shows that this was politically motivated. Christie's trying to limit the political fallout.

The Port Authority is a den of political appointees by design - NY and NJ both designate appointees, so people who are politically connected are chosen for top spots - and the positions are essentially evenly split between NY and NJ appointees.

The surprising thing is that Christie canned Baroni today, but had no problem keeping on NJ Transit's James Weinstein, whose rail team put the rail fleet in a position to be flooded out during Sandy costing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, reduced the rail schedule for months, and no one was fired - there was one person who was demoted, but that was a minor underling.

By his own logic, he should have held Weinstein accountable for the NJ Transit rail debacle. But he hasn't and wont.

The WTC Connector

The World Trade Center connector between the PATH transit station and Brookfield Place (former WFC).

The steel supports for the head-house over the escalators leading to the connector from Brookfield Place

The connector looking towards PATH. Eventually, this area will be lined with shops and be incorporated into the larger Westfield mall under construction around the PATH transit hub and between and around the memorial/museum and skyscrapers on the site.

Gov. Cuomo Sets Course For Reelection Campaign With Tax Cut Gambit

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is hoping to win over some voters upstate with a plan that would cut somewhere from $2 to $3 billion in New York State taxes and fees.

In a surprising announcement scheduled for Wednesday morning, Cuomo will appoint former Gov. George Pataki and former Democratic state Controller Carl McCall to head a task force charged with finding ways to cut between $2 billion and $3 billion in taxes next year, a source with ties to McCall said Tuesday night.

Cuomo wants to announce an aggressive tax-cutting plan as he heads into his reelection run next year.

On the face, this makes perfect sense. New York has a reputation as a high tax state, but when you look under the hood, the tax cuts would do New Yorkers a tremendous disservice. There are several high profile projects around the state that are in dire need of funding, and some or all of the money to be cut would go a long way to funding those projects.

I'm talking about critical infrastructure improvements.

In New York City alone, there's Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway that needs to be funded so that the East Side of Manhattan commuters get relief beyond a stub line. Throw in bridge repairs and infrastructure improvements in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, and there's a pretty long list.

Then, there's Gov. Cuomo's pet project - the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement. It's waiting on confirmation of a federal loan program to fund the project, and the state has already borrowed nearly a billion dollars to get the project off the ground.

Upstate infrastructure needs significant investments, including sewer and water treatment facility upgrades, road rebuilding, and bridge repair or replacement.

Instead of cutting these revenue sources altogether, redirect some or all to fund infrastructure projects that will help modernize the state's crumbling infrastructure and to protect its residents from the effects from tropical storms and hurricanes.

12 Years Later: Remembering 9/11

September 11, 2001. New Yorkers were heading to the polls to vote on the next mayor of the city. It was a morning full of promise and baseball fans were excited about the Yankees' chances of making the playoffs, the Mets thinking about the future, and the start of the new football season. In other words, it was a day not much different than those September days we've been experiencing in the New York City metro area this year.

While everyone was focused on the day ahead, another group of people were thinking about the mission that would forever alter the skyline of NYC and alter history. Al Qaeda's terrorists were already on board four jets bound for New York and Washington DC and had already overpowered the crews.

I was on a NJ Transit train with my dad when I first noticed something wrong at the WTC out of the corner of my eye; it was smoke coming from the upper reaches of the tower.

It was just around 8:45.

The world changed, and I didn't quite realize it.

People watching the morning news didn't know it either at first. But they would soon be glued to broadcasts that showed the horrors of the worst terror attacks ever perpetrated.

The damage done on that morning was nearly impossible to comprehend. In the mere blink of the eye, nearly 3,000 people were condemned to death and the World Trade Center would soon be reduced to a pile of rubble that would burn for weeks on end. Reports would come in that a third plane had struck and damaged the Pentagon.  But the death rattle of the Twin Towers would continue for just under two hours and victims trapped above the fires had to make the choice to stay and choke on the heat and smoke or jump to a certain death. All too many make that decision to jump. Firefighters on the ground also succumbed before the towers fell - falling debris hitting firefighters and fleeing people alike.

Victim Number One would be there to comfort those who fell. Rev. Mychal Judge of the FDNY was comforting fallen firefighters and office workers alike when he was struck and killed by debris. So many people inside the Department and around the City thought so highly of him that he was honored as the first victim of the attacks - so that he could comfort and aid all those many others who were murdered on that day - to guide them to Heaven.

All too many would unfortunately follow him - and not by their own choice.

Here are remembrances of a few of those killed on 9/11, as written by my friend legalbgl for Project 2,996 (and updated to reflect his additional memorializations for 2011 through 2013):

Lt. Col. Jerry Don Dickerson Jr. (2013).
Mary Lenz Wieman (2012).
Mark Francis Broderick (2011).
Captain Patrick J. Brown (2010).
Hagay Shefi (2009).
Alison Marie Wildman (2008).
Daniel Thomas Afflito (2007).

Coming full circle, on May 1, 2011, the United States finally caught up with Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. In a daring raid on a compound near Pakistan's military academy, US special forces killed bin Laden and captured a treasure trove of intel.  That's small consolation for the thousands of families and friends who still grieve the senseless murder of their loved ones in New York, Washington DC at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The profound loss is a heavy burden on all those who were there and on those who lost loved ones. While television crews jockeyed for spots overlooking the Ground Zero site, the death of bin Laden would not bring solace to those who lost loved ones, nor would it bring their loved ones back.

Local commemorations are already underway and will continue through the week throughout the region. And there are those in the area who are still suffering from the medical effects of exposure to the air at Ground Zero.

The federal government created the James Zadroga health and compensation fund because of the ongoing health concerns of those who carried out relief and recovery efforts at Ground Zero. More people are seeking assistance via the program, including those emergency responders who came from across the country to spell the FDNY and NYPD and PAPD in the grim task of recovering the remains of those murdered.

Emergency personnel were at Ground Zero around the clock for weeks on end before officials would claim that the site had officially been cleared of remains. Many of them, plus those living near Ground Zero would later become ill from the effects of breathing in all the dust and debris that was pulverized by the collapsing towers, and it is one of the sadder chapters from 9/11 that we are still burying victims of the attacks to this day, including James Zadroga.

People who risked their lives to save others and to help families who lost loved ones find remains of the victims are themselves victims of the attacks. The Zadroga Act isn't perfect by any means and it has come too late for some, but it's a start to compensate and aid families of responders who are suffering from all manner of ailments  attributed to Ground Zero exposure.

The death toll, which was once feared to be more than we could bear - in the tens of thousands, would eventually drop to around 2,742 at the World Trade Center. However, that count continues rising as more emergency personnel working at Ground Zero succumb to ailments attributed to exposures at Ground Zero. The head of the PBA says that the total number of cops who have died from medical ailments related to the 9/11 attacks is greater than the number who died during the attacks themselves. More than 1,100 people have cancers attributed to exposure at Ground Zero. Over 65,000 are registered with the WTC Registry. Some of their names will eventually be added to the roll of those killed in the attacks.

Construction at the site now dominates discussion, though there are unsettling discoveries made from time to time. Workers at the site of the proposed Park 51 / Cordoba House Islamic Center found part of the landing gear of one of the planes wedged between the building and an adjacent one.

The past 10 years have been a near constant reminder of the profound sense of absence. 1WTC (aka the Freedom Tower) has finally recaptured part of the skyline. 1WTC is still under construction but the antenna and external structures are complete. The base and interior work continues.

Construction of the Transit Hub is also underway, and Santiago Calatrava's design now peeks out above ground as well.

The WTC Transit Hub from Greenwich Street at Vesey

Looking down Greenwich St at the WTC Transit Hub and 3 and 4 WTC

4WTC exterior finished; the building needs interior work, but is in its final form.

2 and 3 WTC are only being built as a stub capable of being completed to their originally designed heights. Unless Larry Silverstein receives commitments to lease space, they will remain as stub buildings that provide retail commercial space for the foreseeable future. 4WTC will be opened to business in November. It's likely that work will restart later this year on 3WTC as there have been rumblings of a deal in the works for leases of significant amounts of space in the tower with GroupM. The 1WTC Observatory will take longer to open,  but Conde Nast will be moving into its offices in 1WTC in 2014 and retail spaces in 3 and 4 WTC will be opening in the coming year courtesy of Silverstein and Westfield Properties.

Fiterman Hall

Meanwhile, Fiterman Hall has now been opened for a full year as students from the Borough of Manhattan Community College have been able to use the facility for classes.

While the National 9/11 Memorial opened in time for the 10th anniversary, the National 9/11 Museum at the World Trade Center had been delayed due to an ongoing battle over who is responsible for certain costs. The museum foundation and the Port Authority had fought over hundreds of millions in costs, and the resulting delay meant that the earliest it would open is early 2014.

The delays were made worse as a result of the damage done by Hurricane Sandy. That included flooding of the museum facilities that are under the podium containing the memorial. It turns out that the battle over costs between the memorial foundation and the Port Authority was a blessing in disguise. It meant that facilities weren't finished out and artifacts weren't in place when lower Manhattan was flooded by Sandy. It also means that the facilities will have to address protecting the artifacts from future storms.

Then, there's the cost to operate the museum when it eventually opens in conjunction with the memorial. The WTC Memorial Foundation estimates it will cost $60 million a year to operate the memorial and museum, which is far out of line from other memorials operated by the National Park Service. It makes tremendous sense and it is logical for the 9/11 museum and memorial to be operated by the NPS instead of the private foundation because of cost containment and the ability to manage the myriad details that come along with such a sensitive site and one of national and international importance.

Millions of people have already paid their respects and visited the 9/11 memorial, and the site has fast become a touchstone for those visiting the city. Tourists from around the country and the world flock to the area to see the new construction and to visit the memorial.

One of the stumbling blocks continues to be whether the museum will charge a fee for entry. I've long argued against any kind of entry fee as well as stripping the memorial foundation of the authority to run the facility and instead put the NPS in charge. The NPS does a tremendous job managing sites around the nation, and the memorial and museum should come under the NPS umbrella. However, without Congressional action, the situation will remain in flux and we should expect to see entry fees imposed on those visiting the site (we already see the foundation making "mandatory" suggested donations for access to the memorial). I wouldn't be surprised if the entry fee runs $20 or more. As more than 4 million visit annually, that would mean $80 million in revenues towards operations.

The Port Authority, which owns the entire site, had been building the infrastructure necessary for other components of the site, including the Vehicle Security Center, the PATH transit hub, and the museum. All three are seriously over budget and are years behind schedule. The PATH Transit hub was among the worst offenders. It was supposed to have been completed in 2009 for $2.2 billion, and yet the earliest it may be finished is 2016 at a cost of more than $4 billion.

When one looks at the recently enacted toll and fare hikes, the cost overrun for PATH turns out to be nearly the entire amount of revenue expected to be raised from the hikes. That's inexcusable; the overruns on the transit hub sap the Port Authority's ability to handle other critical infrastructure projects around the region, and commuters to Lower Manhattan and businesses that want to consider Lower Manhattan have to take into account that the World Trade Center area is still one vast construction site.

When one realizes that the Port Authority gave up the trademark rights to the World Trade Center and WTC to a foundation started by a former employee of the agency for $10, you can begin to understand how poorly the authority had handled its assets over the years. A new report by the Bergen Record found that the Port Authority has no record of this deal being done, which makes this whole situation even more bizarre. After all, it's a former head of the agency involved - Guy Tozzoli.  It's why I don't think the agency has managed its assets well, nor handled the rebuilding in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

The Port Authority said Monday that it had no record of its governing board approving a 1986 deal that handed over ownership of the World Trade Center name for $10. And the agency’s top executive at the time said he didn’t recall it ever coming across his desk.

That added to the mystery surrounding how the Port Authority came to sell the vaunted name of its Manhattan landmark to a group run by a retiring agency executive who made millions in the years that followed.

The Christie administration, which jointly steers the agency with New York’s governor, slammed the deal on Monday, in response to a story in The Record a day earlier.

“You can be sure that would never happen under this administration,” Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said. “I’d venture to say that if something like that was done today, it would probably draw the attention of the United States Attorney’s Office.”

The Port Authority essentially handed over one of its most valuable assets to a former executive who has made a ton of coin over the deal, and has even cost the agency money to continue using the name. Had the agency retained the rights to the name and licensed the name to other entities as the WTCA has done, the Port Authority would have had millions of dollars of revenue that it could have used to fund ongoing operations and projects.

Meanwhile, nearby transit projects are slowly inching towards completion, including the Fulton Transit Center a block east of Ground Zero. That project, run by the MTA, is similarly over budget and late. However, it's far closer to completion than the PATH hub. When finished, the Fulton Center would link with the PATH transit hub by the Dey Street connector, and ultimately those working at the World Financial Center would be able to access Fulton Center without having to travel outside. It's likely to be opened in time for when 4WTC is opened for business later this year.

The skyline will never be the same. Neither will our hearts, which are heavy with the loss and supreme sacrifices made on 9/11 by the rescue personnel who bravely rushed up the towers even as people were racing to get out of the towers or gasping as people were forced to jump to their deaths to avoid being burned alive in the fires that racked the towers.

We remember.

Tribute in Light

Looking up at 1WTC and 7WTC.

More photos of Ground Zero and the rebuilding at the World Trade Center, as taken from 4WTC, which is scheduled to open next year.

The WTC as seen from Hoboken.

For my prior year recollections and postings, see September 11, 2012, 10 Years Later,  September 11, 2010, September 11, 2009,  September 11, 2008, September 11, 2007, September 11, 2006, and September 11, 2005.

Crumbling Infrastructure Watch

This morning, New Jersey commuters trying to get to the Holland Tunnel found themselves navigating a maze of detours and major delays as a key route was shuttered.

The emergency closure was the result of concrete falling from the covered roadway on Route 139 which is one of two major highways leading to the tunnel. Emergency repairs are underway, but the fact is that the roadway needs significant repairs. Replacement of the structure is more than needed as concrete continues to fall away from overhead.

Failing to invest in basic maintenance and upkeep plays a role in this. Heavy traffic pounds on these structures on a daily basis forming cracks that allow water to seep into the structures and begin the process of separating concrete from the reinforcing steel.

The closure in New Jersey is just the latest in a string of infrastructure failures across the state. Water main failures are a common occurrence and one that wastes a key resource and disrupts business in the affected areas. Water utilities and municipalities that manage their own water supplies are also failing to maintain their infrastructure - repairing emergency water main breaks rather than proactively replacing the oldest sections of mains and sewers to upgrade the system.

Heck, Newark has hundreds of fire hydrants that are inoperable because they lack sufficient water pressure or are otherwise damaged in some fashion. That affects public safety and yet there's an insufficient budget to address the concerns.

Far too many people want to see low taxes but ignore that the costs for maintaining an aging infrastructure have grown exponentially requires a growing budget to address those needs.

In New York City, the mayoral race has given little more than lip service to infrastructure and mass transit, which are keys to economic development and community vitality. The City has failed to restore funding to the MTA to help fund capital construction programs and has forced the agency to borrow to make ends meet. That has to change, or else the agency will find itself managing a system that increasingly is falling behind its attempts to get the system into a state of good repair. Hurricane Sandy exposed significant problems with the infrastructure, and not enough effort has gone in to make sure that the lessons are learned and applied to the system.

Gov. Christie Must Fire NJ Transit Officials For Failing To Follow Rail Plan Before Sandy

Governor Chris Christie has given his blessing and backing to NJ Transit officials in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which devastated NJ Transit's rail fleet. 343 railcars and locomotives were flooded and damaged. A portion of the fleet remains out of service due to flood damage.

The costs are in the hundreds of millions, and yet NJ Transit officials have skated by despite incontrovertible evidence that they didn't move equipment to higher ground. They claimed that they didn't have alternative locations.

A damning new report by the Bergen Record shows a completely different story. The paper made a freedom of information request, and the document highlights the absolute incompetence of transit officials.

Only after The Record filed a public-records suit did the transit agency release a 3½-page copy of a hurricane plan prepared four months before the storm that advised transferring commuter trains to several upland sites. Nowhere did the plan recommend what NJ Transit ended up doing: moving millions of dollars worth of rail­cars and engines to a low-lying yard near water, where they were inundated by Sandy’s storm surge.

The NJ Transit document stands in stark contrast to the more detailed hurricane plan prepared by New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, which, taking into account concerns about global warming, enabled the transit system to move the vast majority of its trains to higher ground, saving all but 11 of its rail­cars from flood damage.

The damage to 343 pieces of NJ Transit equipment in low-lying yards in Kearny and Hoboken — 70 locomotives and 273 railcars, a third of the railroad’s fleet — is estimated at $120 million. The damaged equipment also included seven railcars and seven locomotives owned by the MTA that NJ Transit stored in Kearny, site of the agency’s sprawling Meadows Maintenance Complex.

The “NJ Transit Rail Operations Hurricane Plan” prepared in June 2012 directs NJ Transit’s train crews to move railcars and locomotives “from flood-prone areas to higher ground” in the event of a hurricane or severe tropical storm. The plan is brief, but it lists more than a half-dozen locations where equipment is to be moved.

Commuter railcars and locomotives used on the Main and Bergen lines would be stored in the Waldwick Yard, according to the plan. Equipment serving the agency’s Hoboken Division would be stored in the Bergen Tunnels under the Palisades. And cars and engines serving the Atlantic City Line would be moved to a yard in central South Jersey.

It indicates that the transit agency had a basic flood contingency plan that included moving its equipment to higher ground. That included moving its rail fleet to areas in Waldwick, the Bergen Tunnels, and several other locations.

That's exactly what I and many other rail critics have said from day one. There was no reason for the agency to store its equipment in the lowest-lying areas when they had alternatives along their own rights of way that were safer.

The Main/Bergen Line was particularly affected because its equipment was stored in Hoboken; had the equipment been stored instead in Waldwick, the service could have been restored weeks sooner.

Yet NJ Transit's Jim Weinstein has lied to anyone and everyone that there was nothing they could have done to prevent the kind of damage done to the fleet.

Gov. Christie has given Weinstein political cover, and that itself is a boneheaded move. To put this in to terms that anyone can understand - NJ Transit lied to the public. It lied to state officials. It even lied to Congress. Gov. Christie has to fire Weinstein and everyone involved in the decision not only to move the rail fleet to higher ground, but to move equipment into Hoboken and Kearney's low-lying rail yards.

NJ Transit is still trying to recover from the damage; this week NJ Transit is finally reopening the restrooms at Hoboken Yards, although the waiting area at Hoboken is a mess and the shops and restaurants in the terminal are still closed due to flood damage.

No more excuses Gov. Christie. It's past time to act and fire Weinstein and rail officials. They failed the agency, the state, and commuters. They directly harmed the state's economy by complying with their own plans to store equipment on higher ground that would have gotten rail operations back on track weeks faster than they did. As it is, parts of the rail schedule are still not back to 100% of the pre-storm schedule.

The agency doesn't have the equipment on hand to handle disruptions that can crop up on a normal basis. Trains are less reliable due to storm damage, and that means there are more delays than normal. All this affects the ridership and undermines efforts to convince people to use mass transit.

The MTA Announces Major Disruptions on R Line To Solve Sandy Flooding Damage

The MTA in NYC finally got all of its routes restored this past week, with the A running back out to the Rockaways, but they've also announced that they've got to take one of the Sandy damaged tunnels out of service to basically gut the entire thing and rebuild from scratch due to the damage done.

Work on the Montague tube, which connects Brooklyn and Manhattan under the East River, will likely begin in August and is expected to last 12 to 14 months, officials said.

The tube carries the R train, which takes tens of thousands of riders to Manhattan from southern Brooklyn.

An MTA official told the Wall Street Journal that lingering corrosion from the floodwaters is damaging equipment and wires, frequently causing system failures.

It will cost at least $100 million to replace the damaged parts in the Montague tunnel, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Montague Street Tunnel serves the R train, and the MTA figures it will take about a year to do all the work.

The alternative - shutdowns on nights/weekends, would have meant service disruptions and never being able to get ahead of all the problems.

This is expected to take about $100 million and 12-14 months. This particular tunnel was the hardest hit by Sandy, and took the longest to restore to service, but has been plagued with signal and electric power problems ever since.

The work involves:

Work includes the demolition of existing duct banks; removal & disposal of existing tunnel lighting, conduits, wiring, fixtures, ballast & receptacles; construction of new duct banks; installation of new Power & Communications cables in the new duct banks; reconstruction of circuit breaker houses CBH # 82, CBH # 83 & CBH # 91; rehabilitation of two substations (Montague Furman Substation & Broadway-Park Row Substation); new tunnel lighting including fixtures, wiring, & conduit; replacing isolation dampers & wiring for the fan plant; replacement of three submersible pumps & new AC/DC lighting at the pump rooms; track work including new rails & plates; installation of new 8" dry discharge line in both tubes; painting & lead abatement.

The biggest problem is the one that isn't mentioned. Hardening against future storms isn't part of this plan. That means another Sandy-type storm would put the entire system back into a crisis with no option except to watch the system flood and pump it out and try to restore service.

That's not acceptable, but no one seems to have a way to find the funding to make that happen.

The Infrastructure Mess

Infrastructure and public safety once again come to the forefront with the collapse of the I5 Bridge in WA. It's looking like investigators are focusing on a truck that passed through the area shortly before the accident and whether it struck the overhead supports, knocking the span out of alignment. That would take quite a bit of force, unless other issues were at play (including corrosion and a lack of redundancy in structural support).

Time will tell what happened, but thankfully no one was killed in this collapse.

It's a reminder that we are spending far too little on maintaining and upgrading existing infrastructure. The amount we as a nation are spending on infrastructure has fallen to levels not before seen as a percentage of GNP over the past twenty years after peaking during the Stimulus period. We are spending far less in both real dollars and as a percent of GNP than other developed countries, despite critical areas that are not getting support.

Moreover, we're not getting out money's worth (bang for the buck) based on the costs compared to similar projects overseas. Two of the biggest projects are the East Side Access and 2d Avenue Subway lines. Both will improve access to NYC and reduce congestion by carrying hundreds of thousands of commuters each day, but for the cost of the first segment of the 2d Avenue line, several countries in Europe have been able to build out entire subway lines. The NYC subway system is the oldest in the country and essentially operates 24/7/365 with no lines shut down overnight as some of its counterparts elsewhere do. That's beginning the change with the FasTrak service to get repairs done faster and cheaper, but trying to add capacity to an already built-out system in a densely populated area is costly.

Yet, there's room to grow. There's a proposal floating around to get the outer boroughs connected using underutilized rights of way that the MTA doesn't currently use. The Triboro TX would loop through Brooklyn, Queens and Bronx, and link up lines so that commuters don't have to cross into Manhattan to get to their destinations. It makes tremendous sense, and could relieve congestion through Manhattan and wouldn't cost nearly as much as a new subway through Manhattan, except that the MTA doesn't have room in its capital budget to do it - and the lack of political will to get it done either. NIMBYs have been trying to get some of that turned into park, rather than revert to subways that would increase property values of neighborhoods along the routes and prospective station locations. Turnover at the top of the MTA isn't helping either.

But it still comes back to costs for infrastructure. We want it. We need it. It's indispensable, and yet we refuse to pay for it and politicians aren't going to do anything when they can't do ribbon cuttings (so basic maintenance gets shafted).

But big projects like bridges, tunnels, subways, and mass transit are just the tip of the iceberg on infrastructure and public safety.

In light of the tornado that destroyed the town of Moore outside Oklahoma City, there are some calls to require construction of storm shelters and storm cellars in new buildings and retrofit existing structures.

The Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin is refusing to support a mandate that would require storm celler/shelter construction in new or existing structures. It's absolutely mind-boggling.

Despite the life-saving potential of personal storm shelters, the cost remains a deterrent. So, too, does a general resistance to government mandates in politically conservative states such as Oklahoma, where tornadoes are most prevalent. Even the director of an association of storm shelter manufacturers, based in Texas, is opposed to a storm shelter mandate for new homes.

"Any time a governmental entity says 'thou shalt' and tries to take an individual decision into the public domain, it's going to get pushback, and you're also going to raise the cost of things," said Ernst Kiesling, executive director of the National Storm Shelter Association and a retired civil engineering professor Texas Tech University.

The science of storm shelters has advanced considerably since Dorothy failed to make it to the tornado cellar at Aunty Em's Kansas farm in the 1938 movie the Wizard of Oz. Some shelters still are dug underground in the backyard. But they are increasingly made with specially fabricated concrete and steel doors to meet Federal Emergency Management Agency specifications. And they aren't necessarily underground. In some cases, closets or bathrooms are being fortified to double as "safe rooms" that can withstand furious winds even if the rest of the house is blown away.

In 2011, Oklahoma announced the SoonerSafe incentive program, offering federally financed rebates of up to $2,000 to residents who install storm shelters. The state uses a lottery-style drawing to select rebate winners from among the thousands of online applications. Sherry Wells said she won this year. She and her husband decided to get the biggest shelter available- a vault-like box with wooden benches - at a cost of $4,800. The project was so freshly finished that the Wells hadn't even submitted their rebate forms when the tornado hit on Monday.

"If it wasn't for the hand of God and the cellar, we wouldn't be here," Wells said as she sorted through the rubble of her home Thursday.

A little over 3,000 residential storm shelters are registered in Moore, a city of about 56,000, said community development director Elizabeth Jones.

Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis wants to propose a city ordinance requiring all new homes to have storm shelters. But realistically, he said, city officials may be able to require them only in new assisted living facilities and apartment complexes because of cost concerns. Contractors will be part of the conversation with the City Council to see whether a broader requirement is possible, Lewis said.

"We want to be competitive," he said. "We don't want to price them out of the market."

Asked at a news conference if a similar mandate might be considered statewide, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin quickly shot down the suggestion.

Their primary concern is cost.

It would cost anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 to integrate a storm room into a new build. That is the difference between life and death. In fact, one family who won a lottery to get a rebate for a storm shelter survived the Moore tornado just weeks after finishing the work but before they were able to submit the rebate paperwork. That family is alive because of the storm shelter.

The cost definitely works in favor of installing and mandating the shelters, as compared to the funeral costs for those folks who were killed.

This isn't about a lack of money. It's about lacking the will to make it happen and adjusting priorities to focus on public safety and well being. The state of Oklahoma, along with the other Tornado Alley states have no statewide requirements for requiring storm shelters in new buildings, let alone retrofitting them into existing structures. The costs can be depreciated and spread out over the life of the structure, and moreover, the costs can be absorbed simply by reducing the square footage of a private residence with the structure built in by 30-50 square feet.