NEW YORK, NY\u2014 The federal government agreed to release nearly $60 million in funding for New York City\u2019s Second Avenue subway extension, restarting payments after a legal dispute that put the $7 billion project at risk.<\/p>\n
A government lawyer confirmed the decision in a letter filed in Federal Claims Court in Washington, signaling an end to a standoff with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. <\/p>\n
The agency had sued, alleging breach of contract after reimbursements stopped.<\/p>\n
Transportation Department officials had withheld the funds during a review of the authority\u2019s criteria for awarding contracts to disadvantaged businesses. <\/p>\n
Sean Clayton, an acting deputy director, said the agency now accepts New York\u2019s revisions.<\/p>\n
The M.T.A. maintained in court filings that it had already complied with federal policy changes and argued there was no justification for the delay.<\/p>\n
At a hearing, the authority\u2019s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, challenged the government\u2019s reasoning. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe M.T.A. had to comply, as it did, with the laws and regulations when President Biden was president, and agreed to do the same when President Trump was president,\u201d Kaplan said. <\/p>\n
Accusing the agency of violating the law under a new interpretation, she added, \u201ctruly takes us back to kind of a Henry the Eighth world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gov. Kathy Hochul declared the outcome a victory after the payments resumed, pointing to the state\u2019s legal action to challenge the funding freeze.<\/p>\n
The dispute marked another obstacle for a project first envisioned nearly a century ago. <\/p>\n
The planned extension would carry the Q line from 96th Street to 125th Street and Lexington Avenue, expanding service into East Harlem.<\/p>\n
Crews began tunneling in 1972 before a fiscal crisis halted work. The first phase, launched in 2007, opened a decade later after delays and rising costs.<\/p>\n
Progress slowed again in June 2024 when the state postponed Manhattan\u2019s congestion pricing program, a key funding source.<\/p>\n
Work on the extension has resumed, with completion projected for 2032.<\/p>\n
The agency recently advanced a $1.1 billion contract tied to excavation at a planned station on 106th Street. <\/p>\n
State leaders have also pledged to fund design work for extending the line west to 125th Street and Broadway, adding new connections across multiple subway and bus routes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK, NY\u2014 The federal government agreed to release nearly $60 million in funding for New York City\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-203332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}