MTA: $32B capital budget plan needs tweaking to get state OK
Contractors work on the East Side Access Project on Jan 29, 2013, below midtown Manhattan. A new MTA budget in September 2014 includes the East Side access to Grand Central Terminal. Credit: Charles Eckert
MTA chairman Thomas Prendergast Tuesday signaled that the agency's recently proposed $32 billion capital plan may have to undergo some changes in order to get approved and funded.
Speaking at a meeting of the Association for a Better New York, a nonprofit business group, Prendergast noted that getting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's 2015-2019 capital program green lighted will require further "defining what its shape and size is."
The agency two weeks ago proposed the plan, which seeks to fund major maintenance, improvement and expansion projects over the next five years, including the East Side Access plan to link the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal, the Double Track project between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma, and a $196 million effort to install new crash prevention technology on the LIRR and Metro-North Railroad.
While saying that all the proposed projects are essential, Prendergast said the agency would do what was necessary to "at the end of the day; we get it funded."
"If you have an asset that's second to none, and you don't maintain it . . . that's unconscionable," Prendergast told attendees in the Manhattan ballroom. "I need your collective help in doing that."
In 2010, the MTA pared back its originally proposed $28 billion plan by $4 billion, deferring some projects along the way. It eventually grew to $34 billion because of necessary repairs and improvements caused by superstorm Sandy.
The MTA has, so far, only figured out how to pay for about $17 billion in planned capital projects, which include East Side Access and the construction of a second LIRR track between Farmingdale and Ronkonkoma. Prendergast said the MTA will rely on its partners in the state and federal governments, and in New York's business community, to come up with the rest.
Bill Rudin, chairman of the Association for a Better New York, vowed his members' "commitment to help" the agency secure the funding it needs.
Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
