A top MTA official said Tuesday work on extending the Second Avenue subway into East Harlem has stopped due to Gov. Kathy Hochul's pause on congestion pricing — hours after the governor herself said the long-sought project to East Harlem would proceed.
“We have stopped work on Second Avenue subway,” the MTA's top construction officer Jamie Torres-Springer said during a news conference. “There are a lot of projects that we will not be able to build, and we'll be focusing on state of good repair.”
”We have, in a couple of cases, issued stop work orders on projects that do not strictly meet that state of good repair requirement.”
At a separate new conference, Hochul said her decision “does not mean that we will not find funding for the Second Avenue subway.”
The mixed messaging from the MTA and Hochul highlighted the ongoing confusion stemming from her unexpected decision to hold off on the tolls, which were slated to finance $15 billion worth of transit upgrades. MTA officials last week said they must review all major construction projects that were dependent on congestion pricing revenue. Hochul has downplayed the immediate implications of her decision.
“As the Governor made clear today, she is committed to funding the MTA and the Second Avenue subway, and is working with partners in government on funding mechanisms for the MTA while congestion pricing is paused," Hochul spokesperson Anthony Hogrebe wrote in a statement.
The MTA in January issued a contract to relocate utilities to make way for the project, which aims to extend the Q line from its current terminus on East 96th Street to a new, expanded station at East 125th Street and Lexington Avenue. Before Hochul paused congestion pricing on June 5, the MTA was seeking companies to excavate the tunnel for the extension.
The federal government last year agreed to cover $3.4 billion of the project’s estimated $7.7 billion price tag — but only if New York officials cover the remaining cost.
The MTA has paused construction on the extension of the Second Avenue subway into East Harlem, transit officials said Tuesday.
To build the extension of the subway line, MTA officials planned to repurpose a tunnel that was dug out roughly 50 years ago when officials previously tried to construct a Second Avenue subway line uptown. That project was abandoned during the city's financial crisis in the 1970s.
The long-sought subway is one of several MTA projects on the chopping block after Gov. Kathy Hochul “indefinitely paused” congestion pricing, which was supposed to launch on June 30.
"We have said from the moment Gov. Hochul postponed congestion pricing that the future of New York City as we know it is in danger," said Carlo Scissura, CEO of the New York Building Congress. "Today’s actions by the MTA to stop work on the Second Avenue Subway expansion sadly – and maddeningly – proves that point. And the residents of Harlem will suffer the consequences."
MTA officials plan to lay out further cuts to its current construction plan during a board meeting next week.
This story was updated with a comment from Hochul's office and the CEO of the New York Building Congress
