NEW YORK CITY-The 3.5-mile expansion of the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal could take an extra three years—and nearly $1 billion more. Officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said at a meeting Monday evening that the estimated completion time for the agency’s East Side Access megaproject has been pushed back to August 2019 at a cost of $8.24 billion.
The project, originally expected to be completed by 2016 on a budget of approximately $7.2 billion, is based upon construction delays in both Manhattan and Queens. According to a presentation from the MTA, delays in the rebuilding and expansion of the Harold interlocking site – a one-mile swath connecting Queens Boulevard, Sunnyside Rail Yard and 43rd Street –resulted in schedule compression that “placed stress on resources and outages.” More specifically, MTA chairman Joseph Lhota told Long Island Business News that tunneling underneath the Queens rail yard near Jamaica where Amtrak and Acela store trains in addition to its own vehicles, has "become an issue." In addition, environmental problems such as contaminated soil has also caused delays, he explained.
At the Harold site, the MTA is working to replace and add 92 new switches, replace 11 miles of new track, construct five new railroad bridges and build two, 1,000-foot long new bypass tunnels, according to the presentation. The MTA says most of this infrastructure will online prior to the East Side Access’ revenue service and will provide a “significant benefit” to Amtrak and LIRR operations.
But other regional projects, such as the extension of the 7 train to Manhattan’s Far West Side, Moynihan Station, the Fulton Street Transit Hub and the Second Avenue subway, have “put further pressure on resources and outages,” and the MTA says “both cost and schedule contingency have been largely consumed.”
The MTA has outlined and developed a new forecast estimate after the agency called upon Newark-based Golder Associates, an independent facilitator and modeler, to identify risks driving costs and schedule. The agency says it provides 80% probability that the final cost and schedule will be at or below $8.24 billion.
Upon completion, East Side Access will connect the LIRR main and Port Washington lines to a new terminal beneath Grand Central, which is estimated to shorten travel time for Long Island and eastern Queens commuters traveling to Manhattan’s east side. Excavation work has already taken place beneath Manhattan streets and in Queens.
The MTA is working with the Federal Transit Administration to secure funding for the project.
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