Coming soon to East Harlem: A subway more than 60 years in the making. Advertisement
The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill to be signed by President Biden on Monday is poised to unlock billions for mass transit projects in New York — and Metropolitan Transportation Authority leaders are eager for money to jumpstart construction on an extension of the Second Ave. subway to E. 125th St.
This tunnel beneath Second Ave. on the Upper East Side was abandoned in the 1970s. The MTA plans to use it to expand the Second Ave. subway north to E. 125th St. (Gregg Vigliotti/for New York Daily News)
The $5.7 billion project would extend the Q line from its current E. 96th St. and Second Ave. terminus to E. 125th St. and Lexington Ave., where it would connect to the Metro-North Railroad and with the Nos. 4, 5, and 6 lines. On Second Ave., the line would have two new stops at E. 106th St. and E. 116th St.
Transit officials in 2019 applied for a federal grant to cover half that cost — but the request has been stuck in bureaucracy since.
“The project has been sitting at the U.S. Department of Transportation waiting to be moved forward to the next stage of the grant process for more than two years now,” Acting MTA Chairman Janno Lieber told the Daily News.
Lieber said the federal government typically picks up 80% of the costs for major road projects, such as interstate highways.
“It’s not unreasonable for a project like the Second Ave. subway, which serves a low-income community that has been waiting for mass transit for literally 60 or 70 years since they knocked down the Third Ave. els [elevated lines] to get a 50% share,” Lieber said.
An abandoned portion of the Second Ave. subway built in the 1970s. This stretch of tunnel was built around E. 112th St. (Gregg Vigliotti/for New York Daily News)
The plan to build a subway beneath Second Ave. first received funding in 1967 when New York voters approved $2.5 billion of transportation improvements that laid the foundation for the MTA’s establishment in 1968.
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But the project was put on hold in the 1970s during New York City’s financial crisis. Construction crews abandoned work on a partially built tunnel between E. 110th St. and E. 120th St.
It was another four decades before the first three Second Ave. stations on the Upper East Side officially opened on Jan. 1, 2017.
MTA officials in 2019 — when former President Donald Trump was still in office — assumed the feds would pony up their share of the project as part of the agency’s 2020-2024 capital plan that’s priced at $51.5 billion.
Lieber said the surge of funding from the infrastructure bill would help shore up the projects in that plan that have lagged during the pandemic. The agency in all expects a nearly $10 billion boost for construction projects through the legislation.
MTA Acting Chairman Janno Lieber at a press conference. (Gregg Vigliotti/for New York Daily News)
That means the MTA can speed up work on a wide range of projects, like making more than 60 more subway stations wheelchair-accessible and purchasing 475 fully electric buses, Lieber said.
“It means the big projects are more likely to move forward, and will be able to move forward,” said Kate Slevin, executive vice president of the Regional Plan Association.
The bill also expands the pot of federal money transit agencies like the MTA can apply for through grants — which could help fund even more major projects.
“Obviously, when there’s uncertainty, you don’t know how many billions of dollars you’re going to get,” said Slevin. “People are certainly going to be watching how fast the MTA can spend this money and whether it can keep projects on budget.”
Lieber said the money could allow the MTA “to accelerate and potentially grow key categories” in the agency’s capital plan, like buying even more electric buses than previously approved.
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“If we have those opportunities, if and when they arrive, of course we’re going to do a capital plan amendment,” Lieber said.
But changes to the MTA’s capital plan require signoff from the state’s Capital Program Review Board, a body appointed by the governor, the Assembly speaker, the Senate majority leader and the mayor.
The board did not form in 2019 because of a feud between former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who wanted each leader to represent themselves on the body, and Mayor de Blasio, who declined the request.
So Cuomo used a loophole in the law that allowed the existing capital plan to “lapse” into approval at the beginning of 2020 without any review from the group.
Gov. Hochul has announced no plans to form the review board in order to approve changes or expansions — but her spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays said the governor was looking closely at the incoming windfall of infrastructure money.
“We will work with the MTA to determine how best to invest these funds, once available, to bolster transit infrastructure and deliver quality service to riders,” Crampton-Hays said.