Costs continue to escalate for World Trade Center transportation hub

The final price of the World Trade Center transportation hub, set to house a new PATH station and connect New Jersey commuters to 13 subway lines, is expected to rise to $3.8 billion, $400 million more than last estimated in February of this year. The Bergen Record obtained Federal Transit Administration documents that indicated the current budget would not be adequate for the Santiago Calatrava-designed building meant to replicate a bird in flight. The agency, which is paying for a majority of the hub, also pushed back the expected completion date three months to March 2015. But the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which is in charge of the project, said it remained confident that the $3.4 billion budget would suffice, though that’s still substantially larger than the $2.2 billion initially budgeted for the project in 2005. The report states that many of the unforeseen expense increases can be attributed to the agreement struck with Silverstein Properties on its development of three World Trade Center skyscrapers near the hub that forced alterations in the transportation hub’s design. Documents show that the FTA would pay $2.88 billion towards the hub’s completion, with the Port Authority contributing the remaining $920 million. [Record]