MTA spent twice as much on Second Ave subway consultants as it did on its constructionBy Nolan Hicks
February 6, 2023
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority spent nearly twice as much on consultants for the Second Avenue Subway as it did to actually dig the tunnel from 63rd to 96th streets, a damning new assessment revealed Monday.
The 400-page report from researchers at New York University also revealed that the MTA’s failure to properly supervise the outside firms allowed costs to spiral in other key ways: contractors and unions overstaffed the project, dug caverns for platforms that were double the necessary size and drew up station designs so bespoke that each of the three new stops has escalators made by a different manufacturer.
The analysis is important to straphangers because the transit behemoth’s inability to complete projects on time and on budget ultimately leads to higher fares and taxes — as it also takes away from service upgrades and long-promised improvements are scaled back or canceled to free up cash.
“Other places in the world – in Madrid, in four years, they built 80 miles of subway,” said Eric Goldwyn, one of the authors of the report. “We’ve built just a mile.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/02/06/mtas-consultant-bill-for-second-ave-subway-was-double-tunneling-cost/
