Building Rail Transit Projects Better for Less a Report on the Costs of Delivering MTA Megaprojects
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Building Rail Transit Projects Better for Less A Report on the Costs of Delivering MTA Megaprojects A Report of The Fourth Regional Plan and the Milstein Forums on New York’s Future February 2018 Acknowledgments This report highlights key recommendations from RPA’s Fourth Regional Plan for the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area. View the full plan at fourthplan.org The Fourth Regional Plan Regional Plan Association is especially has been made possible by grateful to the Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation for their generous support. Major support from The Ford Foundation Authored by The JPB Foundation Richard Barone, Vice President for Transportation The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Julia Vitullo-Martin, Senior Fellow The Rockefeller Foundation Alyssa Pichardo, Senior Planner, Transportation Grants and donations from Additional content and support was provided by Christopher Albert W. & Katharine E. Merck Charitable Fund Jones, Senior Vice-President and Chief Planner, Moses Gates, Anonymous Director of Community Planning and Design, Dani Simons, Vice Fairfield County Community Foundation President for Strategic Communications, and Allison Henry, Fund for the Environment and Urban Life/Oram Research Analyst, Transportation. Graphics and layout by Ben Foundation Oldenburg, Senior Graphic Designer, and David Young Shin, Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation Graphic Design Intern. JM Kaplan Fund Lincoln Institute of Land Policy RPA thanks the over 100 professionals whose interviews New York Community Trust informed the findings of this study. We would also like to Rauch Foundation thank the following transportation agencies for the data and Siemens technical assistance they provided The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority And additional support from Transport for London and Crossrail Ltd Rohit Aggarwala New York State Energy Consorcio Regional de Transportes de Madrid Peter Bienstock Research and Development Metro de Santiago Brooklyn Greenway Initiative Authority (NYSERDA) Tokyo Metro Doris Duke Charitable Open Space Institute Los Angelos Metro Foundation PlaceWorks Toronto Transit Commission Emigrant Bank Ralph E. Ogden Foundation Société du Grand Paris Friends of Hudson River Park Robert Sterling Clark Fund for New Jersey Foundation Garfield Foundation Rutgers University The Milstein forums on New York’s future Greater Jamaica Shawangunk Valley Development Corporation Conservancy We are grateful for the intellectual input provided via the Town of Hackettstown Stavros Niarchos Foundation Milstein Forums on New York’s Future. Laurance S. Rockefeller Fund Suffolk County Rohit Aggarwala David Klinges Lynne Sagalyn Leen Foundation Two Trees Foundation David Armour Jay Kriegel Elliot Sander Lily Auchincloss Foundation Upper Manhattan Richard Bagger Tom Madison Rob Schiffer National Park Service Empowerment Zone Larry Belinsky Marvin Markus Samuel Schwartz New Jersey Board of Public Volvo Research and Anthony Borelli Howard Milstein Jim Simpson Utilities Education Foundations Tonio Burgos Angela Pinsky Jeffrey Stewart New Jersey Highlands World Bank Armando Seth Pinsky Marilyn Jordan Council Carbonell John Porcari Taylor New Jersey Institute of Anthony Coscia Richard Ravitch Bill Thompson Technology Andrew Farkas Scott Rechler Julia Vitullo- Michael Fascitelli Ed Rendell Martin Patrick Foye Lucius Riccio Thomas Wright We thank all our donors for their Jerry Gottesman Denise Richardson Bob Yaro generous support of our work. Gary Hack Marc Ricks Leo Hindery Stephen Ross Contents Executive Summary / 2 The Challenges of Expanding New York’s Public Transportation / 7 Three Case Studies: Second Avenue Subway, East Side Access, and #7 Line Extension / 11 Second Avenue Subway, Phase One: 63rd Street to 96th Street / 12 East Side Access: LIRR to Grand Central Terminal / 18 #7 Line Subway Extension to the Far West Side / 26 Lessons: What Was Learned from the Case Studies / 32 Lessons from Other Cities: National and International Comparatives / 49 Crossrail (Tunneled Portion) – London, UK / 53 Purple Line Phase I Expansion: Western Avenue to La Cienega - Los Angeles, California, USA / 60 Line 14 Southern Expansion: Olympiades to Orly Airport - Paris, France / 62 Line 9 Extension: Herrera Oria to Paco de Lucia - Madrid, Spain / 66 Northern Line Extension Kennington to Battersea - London, United Kingdom / 69 Construction Standards and Best Practices From Other Places / 71 Capital Construction Recommendations: Reforms and Strategies / 73 Building Rail Transit Projects Better for Less | Regional Plan Association | February 2018 1 Executive Summary The extraordinarily high costs associated with building experts locally and abroad, undertook a comprehensive transit projects in New York are due to many factors, at literature review, and researched the best practices of other every stage, from decisions made by political leaders at the world cities.1 inception of the projects to the final stages of lengthy plan- ning, design, and construction processes. Long tolerated Each MTA megaproject has been so expensive, when com- as an accepted natural consequence of New York’s size and pared with peer cities, that some transportation advocates dominance, these costs threaten to strangle the region’s now argue against any further expansion — urging the future economic growth. Other global cities have outpaced MTA to put all resources into maintenance and repair. But New York in building modern infrastructure and attracting extending rail service into underserved neighborhoods is new business and residents as New York struggles to simply central to ensuring New York remains a region of upward keep up with basic maintenance. mobility. As things stand, trains have become increasingly crowded and roads more congested as riders choose cars Nowhere is the impact of high costs felt more keenly than over trains. The New York region risks losing businesses in transportation — the subways, commuter trains, tunnels, and jobs to other world cities that are building far more bridges, airports, ports, and roads that helped transform transit capacity and upgrading services much faster. an island city into an economic powerhouse. Of these, the city’s extensive subway system has been uniquely impor- While this report focuses on MTA megaprojects, many of tant not only as an efficient mover of people and goods, but its findings and recommendations are relevant to others as a channel of upward mobility, linking far-flung neighbor- agencies and types of infrastructure. hoods to centrally located jobs and businesses via a service used by New Yorkers of every ethnicity and socioeconomic level. New York is the world's Despite its fundamental importance to the region’s welfare, most expensive city the subway system has barely expanded since its peak in 1937. In fact, the commuter rail system's reach has actually in which to build. declined, as many lines were consolidated or decommis- sioned when private companies were merged into the MTA With a $43 billion construction boom combined with a 3.5 and New Jersey Transit. New York needs to reverse this percent cost increase over the previous year, New York trend and set itself back on the path of building wealth- overtook Zurich in 2016 as the most expensive city in the creating infrastructure. world in which to build private or public buildings, accord- ing to a survey by Turner and Townsend.2 This “New York The twin challenges the region faces are high costs and premium” has long been understood to be the price of the slow pace of project delivery. Public confidence in the building in the region, partly but not exclusively because of ability of the MTA and public agencies to deliver capi- its high density and older infrastructure. This cost pre- tal improvements erodes as budgets swell and deadlines mium holds true for new infrastructure as well, as other are repeatedly missed. Yet the public's understanding of similarly dense and far older regions build for far less. The the problems in building large capital projects is limited, Second Avenue Subway (SAS), for example, has the distinc- because the process is complex and opaque. tion of being the world’s most expensive subway extension at a cost of $807 million per track mile for construction This report examines the MTA’s three recent megaproj- costs alone. This is over 650% more per mile than Lon- ects (#7 Line Extension, Second Avenue Subway, and East don’s Northern Line extension to Battersea — estimated at Side Access), articulates the major causes of high costs and $124 million per track mile. Some observers argue SAS’s serious delays, and proposes a series of strategies to address 1 Milstein Forums on New York’s Future 2 Turner & Townsend. “International Construction Market Survey 2017: these issues. RPA conducted extensive interviews with Building Momentum.” 2017. http://www.turnerandtownsend.com/me- dia/2389/icms-survey-2017.pdf (accessed January 15, 2017). 2 Building Rail Transit Projects Better for Less | Regional Plan Association | February 2018 high cost is due to the complexity of its Upper East Side Local communities are engaged too late neighborhood, the densest residential neighborhood in in public review, regularly resulting in the United States. Yet the East Side Access (ESA) budget poor project design and litigation. ballooned from $6.3 billion to more than $10.2 billion over Agencies tend to rely on limited, tightly controlled hear- the past decade while having little surface impact on the ings and outreach that are part of environmental