Despite having $1.57 billion in federal stimulus money approved for New York City capital transportation – with $1 billion more likely to be approved – an analysis of project data provided by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council reveals that the majority of the approved funding has yet to be spent.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been approved for a total of $1.2 billion in stimulus funds to go to projects that support New York City Transit’s work such as the Fulton Street Transit Center through the rehabilitation of the 4/5 subway line mezzanine and the A/C line mezzanine as well as construction on Dey Street and the Corbin Building. $423.4 million has been set aside for the Fulton Street project and $276 million has been approved for ongoing construction of the Second Avenue Subway. Of that, $197 million is devoted to construction of the 96th Street subway station.
The New York City Department of Transportation has been approved for $282 million in stimulus funds. $175 million of that amount will be used to replace the 60-year-old bus ramps at the St. George Ferry terminal on Staten Island while other projects set to receive stimulus funding include work on or around the Brooklyn Bridge and the Bruckner Expressway. The amount of NYSDOT projects currently approved for New York City only totals $81.1 million.
“It seems that New York agencies are expediting things,” said New York Building Congress President Richard T. Anderson. “They’re just being required to adhere to time consuming federal government procedures. This has caused a big part of the delay.”
Considerable funding has been made available to New York City, and 44 projects have already been approved but none of the federal dollars have been used by either the MTA or the NYCDOT.
About $215 million of the $314 million in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 highway and bridge funding committed to the New York City area has been allocated to projects under the jurisdiction of the NYCDOT, while $99 million is allocated to state DOT projects in the city. Projects must follow a mandatory federal process in order to spend these funds. Governor Paterson and the NYSDOT are working with local agencies to advance eligible projects, said Anderson.
“We anticipate that many of the projects will be underway in the upcoming months,” added Mr. Anderson.
Messages left with MTA and NYCDOT officials were not immediately returned.
