A long-delayed MTA Megaproject known as East Side Access -- which promises to bring 160,000 daily LIRR customers into Grand Central -- will cost $11.1 billion instead of the prior estimate of $10.2 billion, the NBC 4 I-Team has learned.
The new price tag arose because of construction obstacles posed in part by Amtrak, according to MTA Chief Development officer Janno Lieber.
But Lieber said the project will open as scheduled in December of 2022.
“Four years away but in megaproject terms, that is soon,” said Lieber. “You’ve got a terminal that is ready to be open, virtually. We’ve got escalators going. We have platforms being built. We have rail going on in the tunnels. This project is really close to being finished.”
When completed, East Side Access is planned to provide new Long Island Rail Road service to the east side of Manhattan, supplementing existing service to Penn Station on Manhattan’s west side and Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn.
The East Side Access megaproject is one of the largest transportation infrastructure projects currently underway in the United States with a history that reaches back to the 1950’s, the MTA says.
The project encompasses work in multiple locations in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx and includes more than eight miles of tunneling, with one of the project's chief engineersonce costing one tunnel at $1 million per foot.
