Cross-borough car commuters rejoiced last week when two frequently clogged access ramps on the Brooklyn Bridge finally expanded from one lane to two — part of a $508 million rehabilitation project that began in 2010.
The work is partially funded with a $30 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — the stimulus bill passed by Congress in President Obama’s early days in office in an effort to jumpstart the floundering economy and create jobs. Now four years removed from its initial fanfare and four months away from the federal deadline for completing stimulus-funded work, the Brooklyn Bridge effort is one of more than 200 transportation projects — together set to receive more than $1 billion in stimulus money — still in the works in New York State.
The Bronx is still getting lavished with $20 million to paint viaducts and ramps on the Bruckner Expressway and $23 million to resurface parts of the Major Deegan Expressway, Mosholu Parkway and Bruckner Expressway. The Department of Transportation awarded nearly $295 million in stimulus funds for a project to streamline train traffic at the spot where Amtrak and Long Island Railroad tracks cross in Queens. That work is less than halfway complete, creating only about six jobs in the first three months of 2013, according to Recovery.gov, which tracks stimulus spending.
The federal data also reveals that a handful of smaller projects in upstate New York haven’t started at all. The most expensive is a $3.8 million effort to create public artwork along two streets in Rochester; the government has already handed over nearly $3 million in funds for the project, though no work has begun.
The U.S. Department of Transportation received a total of $48 billion from the stimulus bill, $3.3 billion of which was awarded to the New York State Department of Transportation — the second largest award to any state transportation department, after California’s.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is untangling train traffic tie-ups in Queens, with the help of $295 million in federal stimulus funds. The project is less than half complete. Photo courtesy MTA
Back in September 2011, with billions of stimulus dollars attached to projects but still not spent, the administration set a deadline of September 30, 2013, for all work to be completed. The bulk of projects should be done by that time, though some transportation efforts will extend past the deadline, according to William Triplett, communications manager for the federal Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board.
The New York State Department of Transportation was unavailable to respond to questions about the unfinshed projects.
The federal recovery board — charged with monitoring the use of funds to root out fraud or mismanagement, as well as updating the public on how the money is spent — was initially supposed to cease operations in September as well.
But earlier this year, the federal government extended its life through 2015 and gave it a new charge: overseeing the use of the $60 billion in Sandy aid funds alloted by Congress. New York City and State recently received their first $3.4 billion in federal grants.
