MTA eyes 2018 for East Side Access

Slow excavation, overlapping construction and Amtrak's rehab of East River tunnels are delaying the MTA's $7.4-billion East Side Access project by as much as 18 months, potentially forcing a projected 166,000 daily LIRR riders to wait until 2018 for a one-seat ride to Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal.

The project had been scheduled for completion in September 2016 -- a date still carried on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's website.

Agency officials, having admitted they can't meet the completion date, now are looking at out-of-the-box ways to make up some of the lost time, including the use of elevator shafts and other makeshift passages to get equipment and workers into the caverns deep beneath Manhattan's streets, said Michael Horodniceanu, MTA's president of capital construction. The agency may even offer some LIRR service to and from Grand Central before all of the project's tunnels are completed.

Amtrak's rehabilitation of the East River tunnels, which started two weeks ago, is the latest delay to what MTA officials have described as the largest transportation project under way in the United States and the LIRR's first expansion in a century. Delays to work including excavation of tunnels that, at their deepest, are 70 feet below street level have prevented other work from starting.

MTA officials acknowledged last month that the 2016 date was officially blown. Instead of a new date, they said only that the project wouldn't be finished later than April 2018 -- the deadline to keep $2.6 billion in federal funding.

While setbacks have been plenty, the authority's officials say considerable progress has been made. The entire project is a little more than half-finished, and the MTA recently came up with a plan to fund the last $2 billion of the project's budget, Horodniceanu said.

"East Side Access for Long Island Rail Road is, in effect, a game-changer. . . . When it's done, people will actually appreciate the service," Horodniceanu said. "I would say to you that good things are worth waiting for."

Federal agency foresaw delays

While the MTA only in recent weeks conceded that the 2016 completion date was unrealistic, other close observers saw the writing on the tunnel walls more than a year ago.

In June 2010, the Federal Transit Administration predicted the project would not be finished until April 2018 and would be at least $700 million over budget. The agency described the situation as "grim."

The transit administration, in each of its monthly oversight reports since then, has continued to raise red flags about delays and cost overruns. In June, the agency pointed out that several key contracts that should have been more than 70 percent done by now, including construction of a new tunnel running underneath Northern Boulevard in Queens, were only about 30 percent complete -- a figure that it called "unacceptable."

The MTA has long acknowledged that the timetable faced risks. But until recently, project leaders remained confident they could meet the 2016 deadline through timesaving methods like creating new entry points to the caverns. Those measures could shave as much as a year off the project, MTA officials said.

However, an independent engineering firm hired by the MTA to oversee the project and report back monthly to its board has said the MTA's efforts, while worthwhile, still would not keep 2016 within reach.

Then, any hopes for the project to be finished in time were dashed when the LIRR and Amtrak announced last month it would replace the tracks in the four East River tunnels leading into and out of Penn Station. The four-year project, taking place on nights and weekends, is staged out of the busy Harold Interlocking rail junction in Long Island City -- the same area used by East Side Access crews.

At an MTA meeting last month, Horodniceanu said the Amtrak project presents "a major challenge" to getting East Side Access done on time. Agency officials expect to release figures later this year on how much money and time the Amtrak-related delays will cost East Side Access.

Frustration over slow progress

Even if the latest obstacles facing the project came as no surprise, business leaders, transit advocates and MTA officials have expressed frustration.

"It's disappointing, but it's not totally unexpected," said William Henderson, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, who called past estimates of the project's completion "extremely optimistic."

MTA board member Mitchell Pally, of Stony Brook, said that while there may be good reasons for the delays, he wishes the agency "would have laid the groundwork for the changes in the [completion] date earlier than they did."

Pally has said he's not convinced the MTA can meet the 2018 target, especially with so much depending on Amtrak's progress and cooperation.

Even Straphangers Campaign spokesman Gene Russianoff -- a frequent critic of MTA management -- is willing to believe the MTA is moving as fast as it can. Having toured the caverns that will house new tunnels and a giant concourse for the LIRR at Grand Central, Russianoff said the project's scope and gargantuan size must be taken into account. He said, "It's like one of the wonders of the world."

With Marc Beja

EAST SIDE ACCESS PROJECT

To give 166,000 LIRR commuters a one-seat ride to Grand Central Terminal and ease congestion at Penn Station.

THE COST The MTA's budget for the project is $7.4 billion, but the Federal Transit Administration expects the cost to reach $8.1 billion.

THE PROGRESS Major construction began in September 2007. All tunnels on the Manhattan side are complete, and new tunnels on the Queens side have begun to be bored. MTA officials say the project is a little more than half-finished and that the project will be completed no later than April 2018. It previously gave target dates of 2011, 2013 and 2016.