Friday, September 08, 2006
Black Hole Now a Reality
While Pennsylvania’s public officials scratch their heads trying to craft a funding solution to the Commonwealth’s crumbling roadways and its inefficient public transit system, which could top $2 billion, the Feds have green-lighted the North Shore Connector. This means that construction of the $435 million beast could start in two months and the state and Allegheny County will be on the hook for 20 percent of the funding.
Sadly, but not surprisingly, word came down from the FTA that the 60-day Congressional review period came and went without any objections. That’s par for the course on this one. Elected officials and civic leaders in this region gave lukewarm support to the tunnel as an unmovable object: the money could not be moved, they argued time and again. Too much time and money have already been spent, was another. If we don’t take the “free” Federal dollars, they’d go to another region. Even the FTA did not seem to care that the Port Authority had no documentation showing a commitment from the County to fund the project. Nothing was going to stand in the way of getting the tunnel built.
Well, the region’s leaders can congratulate themselves for staying on a short list of mass transit boondoggles and they can convince themselves that they did the right thing by making no waves. Let’s hope they keep that optimism when costs escalate and state and local, not Federal, sources are strained to operate the extension.
Sadly, but not surprisingly, word came down from the FTA that the 60-day Congressional review period came and went without any objections. That’s par for the course on this one. Elected officials and civic leaders in this region gave lukewarm support to the tunnel as an unmovable object: the money could not be moved, they argued time and again. Too much time and money have already been spent, was another. If we don’t take the “free” Federal dollars, they’d go to another region. Even the FTA did not seem to care that the Port Authority had no documentation showing a commitment from the County to fund the project. Nothing was going to stand in the way of getting the tunnel built.
Well, the region’s leaders can congratulate themselves for staying on a short list of mass transit boondoggles and they can convince themselves that they did the right thing by making no waves. Let’s hope they keep that optimism when costs escalate and state and local, not Federal, sources are strained to operate the extension.
