Millions In Funding For LIRR-GCT Tunnel
Millions in funding for the East Side Access Project- which would link the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan-and the Second Avenue Subway was included as part of a Congressional appropriations bill, Rep. Carolyn Maloney announced on Tuesday, June 19.
A total of $215 million for the East Side Access project and $123 million for the Second Avenue Subway was included in the House Transportation, Housing & Urban Development (THUD) appropriation proposed for Fiscal Year 2013.
Both figures reflect the amounts requested for each project by the Obama administration in its proposed FY 2013 budget.
“I am gratified that the Second Avenue Subway and East Side Access, the two largest mass transit initiatives under construction anywhere in the country, are receiving meritbased, bipartisan support from the House of Representatives,” said Maloney, whose district includes both projects, in a statement. “I am particularly proud that this appropriation would be the final installment of the federal government’s commitment to the first phase of the project that I have worked my entire congressional career to achieve.”
The East Side Access project involves digging a tunnel through the East River that will allow LIRR trains to travel through Sunnyside to Grand Central Terminal.
It was announced in May that the project’s current completion date is August 2019, at a cost of $8.24 billion.
Meanwhile, the proposed appropriation of $123,384,621 for the Second Avenue Subway represents the final funding of the federal government’s overall $1.3 billion support for the project under a full funding grant agreement signed in November 2007.
