New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority expects to know the fate of its capital program for 2015 to 2019 by the end of the month, Chairman Thomas Prendergast said Wednesday.
"We should know something by the beginning of April," Prendergast told reporters after the MTA board's monthly meeting in lower Manhattan.
Lawmakers in Albany are supposed to approve the state budget by March 31. Uncertain for now is the status of roughly $8 billion Gov. Andrew Cuomo committed to the MTA as part of a state and New York City funding package. The MTA self-funds about $3 billion through bridge and toll revenue.
The authority's proposed $29 billion five-year plan, 18 months in the making, needs approval from a state review board as well.
The MTA, one of the largest municipal issuers with about $36 billion in debt, will run out of money on June 30. By state laws, it cannot spend new money until it exhausts its resources.
After that, barring an infusion of money, the MTA could put work contracts on hold.
"We're advertising work saying 'contingent upon funding available,'" said Craig Stewart, the MTA's senior director of capital programs.
Prendergast also said he expected an independent engineer to complete its investigation of water leaks at the new Hudson Yards station, which opened last September, within 30 to 60 days. "I try not to be judgmental until we establish the fact line," he said.
Reports of leaking water and malfunctioning escalators and bathrooms at the $2.4 billion No. 7 line extension – which the MTA trumpeted as a trophy project – have embarrassed the authority.
Two days earlier, board members grilled Michael Horodniceanu, the head of the MTA's capital construction unit, at transit and capital construction committee meetings.
"This was spanking new and a subject of great pride," said board member Jonathan Ballan. "The level of surprise and disappointment cannot be overstated. We shouldn't be doing trial and error for $2 billion."
Horodniceanu, known to board members as "Doctor H," said Yonkers Construction would pay for the entire fix and use a contractor that employs a different waterproofing method. "Clearly it's something we are displeased with," he said.
Horodniceanu minimized the escalator malfunction, saying that four of the five at the new station still worked.
Ballan was still upset.
"It kind of broke early in the useful life of the escalator. This is brand new, Doctor. Come on."
