Positive reviews from residents can earn third track contractor $250G every 3 months

in·cen·tive /inˈsen(t)iv/ noun

1. a thing that motivates or encourages one to do something.

The construction company handling the Long Island Rail Road’s third track project could earn millions in extra money beyond its $1.8 billion contract if it receives favorable reviews from residents in the towns of North Hempstead, Oyster Bay and Hempstead who are affected by the construction along the 9.8-mile Main Line.

HOW IT WORKS

Under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Design-Builder Incentive Program, Third Track Constructors (3TC) will be awarded up to $250,000 every three months depending on how well residents feel the company has addressed traffic changes, safety, noise and other concerns. The payment is made after MTA officials review results from the agency’s Community Scorecard, a survey sent to residents seeking feedback about 3TC.

Mark Roche, the MTA’s project executive assigned to the third track, said the incentive program is really about residents between Hicksville and Floral Park feeling comfortable during construction, which is expected to last up to four years. He said MTA officials knew the project would mean “we’re going to be right in their backyard and we couldn’t predict what issues they [3TC] would run into.”

The MTA decided that offering more money to influence the “behavior of the contractor was appropriate.”

“The big push was to make sure it affected quality of life as little as possible,” Roche said.

MONEY TALKS

Along the miles-long route, workers for 3TC are frequently emptying garbage trucks with construction debris, using road sweepers to clean the streets and planting shrubbery and flowers to brighten certain areas, Roche said.

Dangling more money in front of contractors will become the new normal for major MTA projects, Roche said. It’s a strategy some residents disapprove of.

Amol Christian, of Carle Place, said it’s unconscionable that 3TC is getting extra payments, especially since construction crews are disturbing residents by working on weekends and the early evening on weekdays. Carle Place residents “are really taking the brunt of all the effects” of third track construction, so any available funds should benefit residents, not the contractor, Christian said.

“That $250,000 can go a long way for our community,” he added. “For us, over a three-year period, we’re talking millions of dollars. That’s money that should be redirected and can be used to beautify [the hamlet] or make [road] improvements along Westbury Avenue.”

Jose Aguilar, who also lives in the hamlet, said the MTA should instead use extra dollars to build 10-foot sound barriers along the new track as well as shrubbery to discourage individuals from putting graffiti on barrier walls.

“Instead of providing money to 3TC, the MTA should pour more into the look and feel of the project,” Aguilar said.

3TC will be the first company to benefit from the incentive program, but not the last.

“It’s part of our overall new strategy for the MTA to make sure we’re dictating behavior,” Roche said of the program. “We are deliberately inducing good behavior. If they behave very well, they get paid well.”

THE SURVEY SAYS

The first survey, which covered October, November and December of 2018, was sent via email and the postal service to residents in Mineola, Westbury, New Hyde Park, Floral Park, Garden City Park, New Cassel, Carle Place, Hicksville and Garden City. The MTA released the results April 4: