Cost up—again—for East Side Access

Long Island Rail Road access to Grand Central Terminal now has been pushed back to 2019, six years beyond its original target date, while the cost of East Side Access has risen once more, to $8.24 billion, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority acknowledged Monday.

Continuing difficulties in constructing the project, particularly on the Queens end of the new tunnel, have plagued the project, MTA officials said. Soft, almost silt-like soil has made tunneling under Sunnyside Yard much more difficult than under Manhattan, where tunnel boring machines ground their way through solid Manhattan schist.

In addition, active rail traffic by LIRR, Amtrak, and New Jersey Transit trains in Sunnyside has slowed progress, while another major project involving Harold Interlocking also has indirectly contributed to delays.

MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota also noted that MTA staffers previously had advanced overly optimistic construction schedules and budgets. “The era of underestimating the cost of big projects is over,” Lhota vowed on Monday. “We’re going to be realistic about the cost and we’re going to budget accordingly.” Lhota already affirmed the schedule delay on May 8, but budget overruns were not discussed publicly at that time.

Approximately 160,000 daily riders are expected to use East Side Access, advanced as a more direct approach for Long Island riders to Manhattan’s East Side and as a backup or alternate route to LIRR’s current terminus, Penn Station, on Manhattan’s West Side.

Three years ago, MTA estimated the price tag would be $7.32 billion and would be completed in 2016. The new estimate adds $920 million to the project.