The Biden Administration has agreed to pick up half of the $6.6 billion tab to extend the Second Avenue Subway through East Harlem, providing funds the MTA says are essential to finally getting the project off the drawing boards and into construction.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-Harlem) announced deal Tuesday, which will provide $3.4 billion to pay for the 1.5 mile subway extension that will add three new stops on the Q line at 106th St./Second Ave, 116th St./Second Avenue and 125th St./Lexington Ave.
“This grant is significant not only in its size, but also in where it’s going,” said Schumer, in a statement. “The funds will be used to build public transit in a neighborhood that has been neglected for far too long.”
Schumer’s office said the agreement must now go to Congress for a two-week review period before it goes into effect.
The federal grant comes as pressure mounts on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to find ways to shave down the project’s eye-watering price tag.
A series of stories in The Post have revealed the agency’s preliminary designs repeat many of the costly decisions made on the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway through the Upper East Side, which became one of the most expensive transit projects ever built.
MTA officials have promised to review the designs.
An MTA spokesman declined to comment.