Price of LaGuardia overhaul soars to an estimated $5.3B

The increase comes one month after the price jumped to $4B

<em>A rendering of the $5.3 billion overhaul of LaGuardia Airport</em>
A rendering of the $5.3 billion overhaul of LaGuardia Airport

The price of overhauling LaGuardia Airport continues to climb, with the latest estimate pegged at $5.3 billion.

The pricetag of the project, which includes replacing Terminal B, has been rising since 2014, when the initial estimate was $3.6 billion. Last month, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey increased that number to roughly $4 billion. The agency released the latest figure on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Port Authority Chairman John Degnan told the newspaper that he wasn’t sure that earlier estimates “accurately reflected the true costs of the project.” He also said that the agency needs to consider other projects, like the proposed $10 billion Midtown bus terminal and new tunnels under the Hudson River.

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The redevelopment of the airport is just a piece of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s sweeping infrastructure agenda, which includes a proposed $100 billion investment into development projects statewide. Other projects include the $3 billion redevelopment of Penn Station and the Farley Post Office, and the $1 billion expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Center.

In 2014, Cuomo and Vice President Joe Biden announced a competition to redesign the airport. Since then, the governor has often cited Biden’s comparison of the airport to a third world country’s. The latest estimate for the airport was part of a resolution that is scheduled to be voted on at the agency’s board meeting on Thursday. [WSJ]Kathryn Brenzel