News
Track and Tunnel Update
July 26, 2010
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| Infrastructure, renewal, and reinvestment is taking place in NY and NJ, although agencies are tempered by market realities, we learned at Professional Women in Construction's transportation forum Thursday morning. Helena Williams, president of the Long Island Railroad (standing, with moderator The Fife Group principal Bill Fife, Port Authority COO Ernesto Butcher, North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority executive director Mary Murphy, and NJ Transit assistant executive director Lynn Bowersox) says that the MTA's five-year capital program has allocated $2.6B to the LIRR for projects like East Side Access, but funding has only been secured for this year and next. NJ Transit has a $1.3B capital program for FY11, including the ARC Tunnel, notes Lynn. This project alone will generate as much as 6k jobs and create $1B of opportunity for Disadvantaged Business Enterprises. |
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| The Port Authority is fundamentally sound, says Ernesto, but the reality of the economic downturn has prompted the agency to shrink its 10-year capital plan by $5B to $24.5B, work with a zero-growth operating budget, and have its leanest staff in 40 years. The result: a greater focus on state-of-good-repair and security projects. Mary, whose agency is responsible for assessing the planning needs of 13 counties in central and northern NJ, says that federal stimulus funds allocated $124M for 62 local projects selected by the NJTPA. The panelists, above with PWC president Lenore Janis, also discussed their small business/DBE goals and opportunities. |
