The Federal Transit Administration still needs to come to terms on a Capital Investment Grants agreement for both the $7.7 billion MTA Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the $18 billion Gateway Development Commission Phase One Gateway Tunnel before either agency can actually access funding from Washington.
The FTA CIG FFGA (Capital Investment Grants Program/FTA) for the $7.7 billion Second Avenue Subway Phase Two would cap federal participation at $3.4 billion.
That would be the largest New York MTA FFGA in FTA history, even greater than the $2.63 billion LIRR East Side Access to Grand Central Terminal to the MTA in 2006. Only the $6.9 billion FFGA for the $18 billion Phase One Gateway Tunnel (two new tunnels connecting New Jersey to New York Penn Station) would be the nation’s largest in FTA history.
The FFGA for Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 still remains a year or more away from approval. All the FTA previously provided to the MTA was permission to advance final design and engineering in January 2022. Eighteen months later, the project still faces a myriad of hurdles.
The FTA recently provided permission for the Gateway Development Commission for the second phase of the FTA CIG program for final design and engineering to proceed. The Federal Rail Road cost estimate, including Gateway Phase 2, is $40 billion.
The FTA funding is still not secured. The FTA and GDC need to come to terms on a FTA CIG FFGA.. Only then would the federal funding become real. This would cap federal participation at $6.9 billion.
The Gateway $18 billion Phase One project is far more complex and expensive than the MTA $7.7 billion Second Avenue Subway Phase 2. Many other FTA CIG projects around the nation, after final design and engineering cost far less, than either Gateway or Second Avenue Subway Phase 2, These have averaged two to three years before receipt of an approved FTA CIG FFGA to fund actual construction. Both Gateway and Second Avenue Subway, due to their respective costs and complexities, will undergo far more detailed ongoing review and scrutiny by FTA before funding is actually obligated.
Both the MTA and GDC would be legally responsible to pay for any cost overruns above and beyond the agreed upon respective total project costs contained within future FTA CIG FFGA’s. It is anyone’s guess how many more years will be needed to bring U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer’s promised delivery of federal funding under future FTA CIG FFGA for either project. The same holds true for inevitable cost overruns that could be in the billions for either project.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously served as a former Director for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office of Operations and Program Management.
