Now that President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill has passed, leaders in New York City are thinking about how to apply for what many are calling a once in a lifetime opportunity to get big projects funded. From correcting environmental racism built into the highways to projects that will improve mass transit, funding from the bill could flow into New York soon and leaders are ready to get started.
Senator Chuck Schumer made an appearance in the Bronx this week to support a proposal to put a cap over sections of the Cross Bronx Expressway to reduce pollution—and eventually building a park on top. Mayor-elect Eric Adams said Wednesday he’d support that, as well as capping sections of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
Speaking to a group of business leaders Wednesday at Industry City, Carlo Scissura, the president and CEO of New York Building Congress, said there’s one top project on his mind.
“And it's called knocking down, redesigning and rebuilding a Brooklyn-Queens Expressway for people, for communities, and for all of us,” he said. “I think it’s critical.”
He would like to see cars driving through tunnels underground, and using the road space for parks and bike lanes. (Instead of more ambitious (and construction-heavy) solutions, the de Blasio administration has determined that a disintegrating 1.5 mile stretch of the highway will be rehabilitated to make it last another 20 years.) He also urged everyone in the room to support politicians and agencies to apply for these federal funds as quickly as possible.
“I don’t believe in my lifetime that I will see another incredible, massive, federal investment in infrastructure,” he said.
READ MORE: NYC’s Plan For Deteriorating BQE Is To Make It Last For 20 More Years
The MTA’s acting chairman Janno Lieber stood next to him and vigorously agreed that the MTA should also apply for every single grant possible from the federal government to help boost the agency’s current $51.5 billion capital plan. The MTA is hoping to qualify for $10 billion in funding from the infrastructure bill.
It’s expected to use that money for everything from tripling the number of accessible subway stations, to buying electric buses, new train cars, and completing the signal modernization. “It’s all going to be accelerated because of this” federal funding, Lieber said.
The MTA could add passenger service to these freight rail tracks
He added that mega projects, like the next phase of the Second Avenue extension to East Harlem, could be completed with this funding. And Lieber dangled the possibility Wednesday that money from the infrastructure bill could be used to pay for the Bay Ridge branch, an idea floated back in 1996 by the Regional Plan Association for a 16-mile long subway line running from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to Astoria, Queens.
READ MORE: The MTA Is Considering A New Train Line Connecting Bay Ridge To Astoria
The infrastructure bill has provisions to fix the 10 most economically significant bridges in the country, which deputy DOT Secretary—and former New York City Transportation Commissioner—Polly Trottenberg believes could go to several New York bridges.
There’s also $30 billion in the bill for Amtrak upgrading the Northeast Corridor, as well as $8 billion in funding that could go toward ensuring the Gateway project gets all the funding it needs to move forward repairing the Sanday-damaged tunnels, and building two new tunnels.
“There is a growing consensus that we need to create a system that is emitting less carbon, and doing more to foster equity,” Trottenberg said on a conference call Tuesday.
“When mass transit is convenient, reliable, and affordable people will drive less,” she added.
There is also about a billion dollars for regional airports: Newark, LaGuardia, and John F. Kennedy. But the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey wrote that it’s unclear how much would go to JFK’s and LaGuardia’s recent construction projects. Those airports have been under construction for years, and LaGuardia is less than a year away from completion. Two-thirds of the funding for that project was from the private sector. JFK upgrades were mostly made with private investments as well.
Grant funding from the infrastructure bill could be released within six months. Another infrastructure bill, the Build Back Better Act, could pass soon, and would make more funding available.
Biden will sign the bill on Monday.
