East Side Access is the name given by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York to the project to let some of the trains of the Long Island Railroad end their routes at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan rather than at Penn Station where they currently finish. It is the single biggest public works project currently underway in the USA. It is also clearly the single most incompetently run project in America. Indeed, the East Side Access project makes the roll out of the Obamacare website look like a model of efficiency.
Here are two key statistics. The East Side Access project was originally slated to be completed in 2009. The current schedule calls for completion in 2022, a 13 year delay. The price tag for the project has risen by many billions of dollars and it is now expected to cost over 250% of the original budget. In other words, the project is totally out of control.
It seems hard to believe that this project could take this long, particularly given the relatively small amount of work that had to be done. East Side Access has been on the planning lists for many decades. The MTA even built a tunnel for the LIRR trains to use as part of the project in the mid 1970s. That work had to stop due to budgetary problems, but the tunnel was already in place when the work resumed. That means that all that is really being constructed is a connection from the train line off the tunnel to the tracks that come down under Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. There also had to be a connection built on the Queens side of the East River to get the LIRR trains to the new line. Lastly, some new station facilities had to be built at Grand Central.
There is really no excuse why this project is taking extra decades to complete and costing many multiples of the original price. So far, no one has been fired for the failure to run the project properly. I know that the MTA does not do well controlling its capital construction projects. Even so, this is one of the most outrageous failures ever. Something needs to be done.
Here are two key statistics. The East Side Access project was originally slated to be completed in 2009. The current schedule calls for completion in 2022, a 13 year delay. The price tag for the project has risen by many billions of dollars and it is now expected to cost over 250% of the original budget. In other words, the project is totally out of control.
It seems hard to believe that this project could take this long, particularly given the relatively small amount of work that had to be done. East Side Access has been on the planning lists for many decades. The MTA even built a tunnel for the LIRR trains to use as part of the project in the mid 1970s. That work had to stop due to budgetary problems, but the tunnel was already in place when the work resumed. That means that all that is really being constructed is a connection from the train line off the tunnel to the tracks that come down under Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. There also had to be a connection built on the Queens side of the East River to get the LIRR trains to the new line. Lastly, some new station facilities had to be built at Grand Central.
There is really no excuse why this project is taking extra decades to complete and costing many multiples of the original price. So far, no one has been fired for the failure to run the project properly. I know that the MTA does not do well controlling its capital construction projects. Even so, this is one of the most outrageous failures ever. Something needs to be done.
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