Project Finance
NY Officials Adopt $37B Transportation Improvement Program
The adopted program includes $5 billion toward Phase 2 of the Second Avenue subway extension project.
Photo by Marc A. Hermann/MTA
New York City area government agencies took a key step toward funding $37 billion in transportation projects over the next five years as the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council voted to adopt a new Transportation Improvement Program Oct. 13.
The move enables the agencies to receive nearly $15 billion in federal funds toward the work, officials say.
The program, known as a TIP, lists hundreds of planned road, bridge, rail and other projects and includes proposed funding for fiscal years 2023 to 2027. In addition to funding projects, the federal money will help the agencies address climate change, system resilience and transportation equity, said Dan Garodnick, director of the New York City Dept. of City Planning and a council co-chair.
That funding includes $5 billion toward Phase 2 of a Second Avenue subway extension into the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan with new stops at 125th, 116th and 106th Streets. Another $2.1 billion would go toward a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey project to build an elevated airtrain to LaGuardia Airport.
Planned highway rehabilitation project funding includes $375.8 million for the Trans-Manhattan Expressway between Harlem River Drive and the George Washington Bridge and $239.9 million for a Brooklyn Queens Expressway bridge over 47th Street in Queens. Another $427.1 million would go toward providing full ADA-compliant accessibility at Broadway Junction station in Brooklyn.
The TIP also includes projects on Long Island, such as $236 million planned for Long Island Railroad building and station improvements, and in the lower Hudson Valley, including $284.8 million toward rehabilitation work at various Metro North Railroad stations.
“It’s a very exciting time in transportation,” said Marie Therese Dominguez, council co-chair and New York State Dept. of Transportation commissioner.
The $14.6 billion in federal funds programmed in the TIP represents a 26% increase compared to the previous fiscal 2020 to 2024 TIP, largely due to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, said Gerry Bogacz, council assistant director of planning and program management.
That amount will likely grow further as funds from three new programs become available, and other discretionary awards also become available beyond fiscal year 2023, he said. The majority of $277 million in discretionary funding awarded to the agencies so far has not yet been programmed in the TIP.
“So this increase in federal funding will hopefully get bigger and we’ll see something more in the range of 30-35% over the previous funding levels,” Bogacz said.
In addition to the TIP, the council also voted to adopt a determination for the TIP and for its long-range Regional Transportation Plan that ensures the planned projects meet Clean Air Act requirements.
