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Originally Posted by Busy Bee
Come on now, the project is absolutely necessary based on the lifespan of the North River tunnels alone. Fact: they have to be closed and rehabilitated. Fact: you can't do that without replacement tunnels being open.
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Do we think the north river tunnels are going to last until 2043 without major rehabilitations? I sincerely doubt it.
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When finished the 4 tracks will boost capacity, drastically improve scheduling and performance and build in redundancy to assure the avoidance of catastrophic delays caused by issues with the old tunnels. Plus Portal Bridge(s) and all the trunk capacity added between the Penn's.
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I'd like some entity to deign an explanation or two about
how the new capacity will be used exactly. How much more Amtrak service and to where, how much more NJT service and to where. What rolling stock are you buying to facilitate that and where is the $ coming from. In light of LIRR spending an absolute fortune for basically no new service these are not unreasonable questions.
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I dont have a crystal ball but I'm not sure this announcement is that big of a deal. Its not beyond possible they make up for the lost time when construction is blitzing along.
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If there was some precedent for this in the NY area in similar projects I might entertain the possibility. The opposite is very much true unfortunately.
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As for the reported peice increase, did anyone seriously think that wouldnt inch upwards? Inflation and regular contigencies on a civil project of this scale are unavoidable. Luckily scope creep is unlikely as the Gateway project is pretty well planned imo. I just hope the tbm doesnt get stuck underwater.
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This thing is now expensive way way beyond any comparable project on the planet and I have not heard a good explanation as to why which doesn't lead me to believe taxpayers are being taken for a massive ride by all involved.