The final cost and financing to pay for future completion of the $2.6 billion LIRR Main Line Third Track is the real secret behind the story. “First section of LIRR’s new 3rd Track opens” (Aug. 19). Neither MTA Chairman Janno Lieber, LIRR President Catherine Renaldi, Gov. Kathy Hochul or any other elected officials talked about or even acknowledged this at the recent ceremony celebrating the opening of the first section for the Main Line Third Track.. They would blame their predecessors for past missed federal funding opportunities that could have paid for a substantial portion of the project cost.
In January 2018, the MTA awarded a $1.8 billion contract to the joint venture 3rd Track Constructors for construction. An additional contract for $99.9 million was awarded to an Arup-Jacobs joint venture for project management. These contracts, totaling $1.95 billion, were part of a $3 billion MTA 2015-2019 Five Year Capital Program Amendment, which increased the budget from $29 to $32 billion. They were paid for by adding $1.6 billion in long-term MTA debt.
Claims that the Main Line Third Track project is under budget is misleading. The full $2.6 billion cost doesn’t include the millions in annual debt service payments to cover the cost of borrowing to finance this project. Cost estimates for construction grew from $600 million to $1.5 billion in 2016, $2 billion in 2017 and $2.6 billion in 2018. There was only $1.95 billion available under the MTA $32 billion 2015-2019 Five Year Capital Plan. To complete the $2.6 billion financing package, another $600 million was added as part of the $51 billion 2020 – 2024 Five Year Capital Plan.
Failure to follow the National Environmental Protect Act resulted in forfeiting potential Federal Transit Administration funding. The MTA receives $1.5 billion yearly from FTA. The LIRR is usually allocated several hundred million of these dollars for its own capital program. The MTA could have asked FTA for permission to enter Main Line Third project into the FTA national competitive discretionary Capital Investment Grant New Starts Core Capacity program for funding. Successful completion of this process results in a Full Funding Grant Agreement grant. The FTA CIG program under two FFGA’s to the MTA provided several billion each toward paying for the $11.2 billion East Side Access to Grand Central Madison and $4.5 billion Second Avenue Subway Phase 1 projects.
Obtaining FTA funding could have avoided borrowing to pay for this project. It would have saved the MTA significant dollars. The Federal Highway Administration has funding under several programs, including Congestion Mitigation Air Quality, Surface Transportation Program and others, which could have been flexed or transferred to FTA. They could have been passed on to the MTA/LIRR under an FTA grant to help pay for construction.
Beneficial use for Main Line Third Track will be reached by December 2022. The MTA and LIRR admitted that there was still more work to do before actually reaching 100% completion. Additional work for both stations and landscaping will take until April 2023 There is also completion of contract punch list items (to insure contractor built the asset to meet design and engineering contract specifications), receipt of all asset maintenance manuals, payments for the last bills, and release of contract retainage to all the contractors who worked on the project. At that point, the project is really complete.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
(Former director, Federal Transit Administration, New York Region, Office of Operations and Program Management)
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