La Guardia airport revamp cost estimates soar to $5.3B

Dive Brief:

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced yet another upward revision to the estimated costs for the La Guardia Airport revamp — with a new estimate of $5.3 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Last month, the authority announced a revised cost of $4.2 billion, up from the original estimate of $3.6 billion, but said at the time that costs could reach the $5 billion mark.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the ever-increasing price tag for the La Guardia project has caused friction among some Port Authority officials who say there are other New York and New Jersey transportation projects in need of funding as well.

Dive Insight:

"As the project has expanded and as the numbers have been worked out, there have been other developments," such as the bus terminal and Hudson River tunnel projects, Port Authority Chairman John Degnan told The Journal. "We don’t live in a static environment."

Authority officials said this latest figure also covers "redevelopment work" dating back more than 10 years, a new grand entryway, as well as other staff costs and overhead. Still outstanding are the costs for a tentative plan to tie Terminals C and D into the rest of the airport. The new number also holds in reserve $182 million for any costs the Port Authority incurs in relation to the project.

It’s unclear how these cost increases dip directly into the pocket of the Port Authority, as public-private partnership consortium La Guardia Gateway Partners has a deal to design, construct, finance, maintain and operate the new terminal. However, officials said the agency will not be paying for the 3% rise in costs to Terminal B, as the increase resulted from "changes requested by the airlines, federal security officials and the consortium of companies chosen to build the terminal."

La Guardia likely won't be the only high-profile New York project that will soon use a P3 for construction. In January, New York Gov. Andrew Como announced a $100 billion infrastructure plan, and officials said the state would utilize P3s as part of that plan as well.