The Metropolitan Transportation Authority still does not know when the Fulton St. Transit Center will be complete or what the completed structure will look like, but Bill Wheeler, the agency’s planning director, promised City Councilmember Alan Gerson answers soon.
Wheeler spoke at a hearing Gerson held Monday focusing on the World Trade Center site, which will have an underground connection to the Fulton St. Transit Center, bringing together a total of 11 subway lines and the PATH trains. Like the W.T.C. projects, the Fulton hub is over budget and behind schedule, but unlike the Port Authority’s candid assessment of the W.T.C. site, the M.T.A. has yet to release a timetable for the transit center.
“They’ve been able to present milestones ahead of contracts being awarded,” Gerson said of the Port Authority, as he urged Wheeler to do the same.
“You’re right,” Wheeler said.
The M.T.A. had two alternatives when the construction estimate for the transit center came in at $298 million over budget last January: revise the design or look for additional funding. The M.T.A. decided on a combination of the two, though Wheeler would not say what funding sources the M.T.A. is considering or what the design changes will be.
In the wake of congestion pricing’s failure last spring, Gov. David Paterson appointed a commission led by former M.T.A. chairperson Richard Ravitch to examine ways of closing the M.T.A.’s capital budget deficit. The commission will issue a report by Dec. 5.
One redesign possibility for the station is a smaller above-ground structure with a flat skylight as opposed to the domed oculus featured in the original design.
The M.T.A. could see some automatic cost savings if the economy continues its downward spiral, since the overheated construction market may cool and the price of materials could drop, Wheeler said.
Work on the belowground portion of the station is moving forward, and Wheeler expects the construction on Dey St. to be complete in the next month. Reopening the Cortlandt St. R/W station, though, will take at least several more months, he said.
The M.T.A. plans to award the contract for the “mixing bowl,” the central belowground portion of the station, by the end of the year and the contract for the A/C and 4/5 platforms during 2009. The last contracts to be awarded — Wheeler wouldn’t say when — will be to build the aboveground station and restore the adjacent historic Corbin Building.
The Corbin Building could be one of the most expensive pieces of the project, because it will require specialty contractors and materials, Wheeler said.
“We don’t want to hold the rest of the project hostage to that,” Gerson said. “Given the economic climate, [couldn’t we] defer the full historic restoration to better times?”
Wheeler said he could not speculate on whether the M.T.A. is considering that option.
—Julie Shapiro
