According to a report presented at the MTA Board’s capital construction committee meeting this morning, the Federal Transit Administrative believes the MTA’s timeline and budget for the Second Ave. Subway to be overly aggressive. I’ll have a full report on this development later tonight, but the FTA believes that Phase I of the new subway line won’t be completed until 2018 and could cost nearly $6 billion. The MTA is sticking with its estimated completion date of late 2016 or mid 2017 and a budget under $5 billion.
FTA: MTA timeline, budget for SAS wildly optimistic
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As time moves forward, so does the completion date.
It’s almost as if it’s a divergent series. :p
They really should limit the entrances to and from the stations and have the mezzanines deep underground too so the main issue (utilities) has its cost cut.
I thought there was a tunnel boring machine that drilled 100 miles a day.
I want a job where my estimates can be off by a year and a billion dollars. Is there any incentive in this process to be on time and under budget?
I haven’t been following the details of the construction closely, but I had assumed that the problem with moving utilities was with the main bore. If the problem is really with the mezzanines, then it would seem that an efficatious solution would be pretty easy to find.
On the other hand, I’m sure each time the MTA changes their plans, some contractor takes three years off of the amount of time it will take him to pay off his yacht.
Was a part of this tunnel already built in the 70s or is that farther north? 6 billions dollars is insane. Does anyone know where the money will go? I mean, is there one or two items that became much more costly, or is the increase just an overall undersetimation?
Two fragments of line were dug north of 96th St in the early 70s. They were probably both cut-and-cover projects. The north end of this “Phase 1” will extend to within a few feet of one existing section that could be six or eight blocks long. So when “Phase 2” gets going toward 125 St, it will have a little head start.
There’s another section that was dug in the 70s, somewhere south of Canal St, but maybe closer to Wall St., I just don’t know. It was surely an even more wasted effort than the stretches in East Harlem. I can easily imagine Phases 1 & 2 being completed by 2030, and Phases 3 & 4 more like never.