Port Authority hopes for federal bailout for tunnels
Friday, January 23, 2009
By Jon Schmitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The executive director of the Port Authority said today that about $290 million has been spent on the North Shore subway extension and warned that the region would have "nothing to show" for that expenditure if the project is shut down.
Steve Bland laid out several options for dealing with a $117.8 million cost overrun on the project, which will extend the Light Rail Transit system from Gateway Center, Downtown, to new stations at PNC Park and Heinz Field.
The best, he said, is to secure funding from the federal economic stimulus bill currently before the U.S. House of Representatives.
If the authority tried to borrow to meet the overrun, it would balloon debt service payments in the capital budget, currently 40 percent, to as much as 55 percent -- meaning that more than half of the authority's capital spending would be on interest costs.
If the project is terminated, "Pittsburgh would find itself in last place in any line for future funding" of major transit projects, he told the authority's board.
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