True, a new tunnel would be a huge benefit for regional transit. Unfortunately, the astronomical cost estimates (recent estimates were ~$16 billion for the tunnel alone), make it pretty hard to justify on a cost-benefit basis.
NYC area construction costs are out of control relative to most of the developed world.
I don't think it is for the tunnel alone. I think it is for all of the other work like a transit yard, more train carts, better train communication, more maintenance faciliities, etc, that boosted the price to $16b.
> NYC area construction costs are out of control relative to most of the developed world.
Being in NYC construction and design, the problem currently is the availability of contractors and workers. The prices follow the law of supply and demand. And a huge amount of public sector work (billions of dollars) is hitting the region and more is projected in the future. Just yesterday I learned that recent construction bid prices for projects were coming in much, much higher than the engineer's estimate throughout the City. In contractor's words, times are good, so bid high.
> I don't think it is for the tunnel alone. I think it is for all of the other work like a transit yard, more train carts, better train communication, more maintenance faciliities, etc, that boosted the price to $16b.
I stand corrected - the latest official word from Amtrak is $23.9 billion for the entire Gateway project, of which $7.7 is specifically for the tunnel (not including track work that's necessary to link it with Secaucus and Penn Station).
That's just the current projected cost. East Side Access was projected at $4.3 billion, but will end up costing more than $10.8 billion.
It's not that complicated. Manhattan is very developed which raises construction costs substantially, but ultimately construction costs here are still dramatically out of line.
The Second Avenue Subway is the most expensive metro ever constructed (on a per-mile basis), even compared to extremely dense, developed-world cities like Tokyo and Paris, both of whom have active subway construction going on for far cheaper.
There is a tremendous amount of waste and corruption in this process, and there's not a lot of political will to address it, since the governors of NY and NJ are both pretty deep in it themselves.
On the bright side, Christie's career has self-destructed over the course of this year, and Cuomo himself is under investigation for corruption. One can only hope that their successors would be a bit cleaner and more willing to tackle these issues.
I think the astronomical price tag is for the whole Gateway Project not just the tunnel, there's the expansion as well as refurbishing of the existing tunnel that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy. This article is a good insight into how convoluted the whole project is:
NYC area construction costs are out of control relative to most of the developed world.