Port Authority releases draft environmental report on Newark AirTrain
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has released the Draft Environmental Assessment for the project to build a new AirTrain system at Newark Liberty International Airport, beginning the 30-day period for public comment. The project, expected to cost about $2 billion, will build a 2.5-mile elevated train system to replace the current monorail, which opened in 1996 and increasingly faces operating problems. “The current AirTrain Newark has reached the end of its useful life, suffering frequent breakdowns and delays,” Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said in a press release. “A modern best-in-class airport must have an appealing, reliable best-in-class rail mass transit link that will eliminate headaches during travel, not cause them.” The draft assessment found no significant, permanent impacts from the project in the 17 categories it assessed, but identified three possible temporary impacts during construction. The report is available here, along with information how to comment. Comments will be accepted through March 12.
Long Island village sues MTA, LIRR over power poles, claiming it was ‘willfully misled’
The Village of Garden City, N.Y., has filed suit against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Long Island Railroad, and two utilities over 120-foot-tall steel utility poles installed at Garden City’s commuter rail station as part of the LIRR’s Third Track construction project. Newsday reports the suit filed in state Supreme Court say the transit agencies and utilities Public Service Enterprise Group and Long Island Power Authority “engaged in a pattern of deceptive behavior” and “willfully misled” the village about installation of the poles. The suit demands the poles be removed. An MTA spokesman said it was “unfortunate that a small group of residents and elected officials, mostly who never bothered to engage in the substantial amount of planning that went into this project, are now spearheading a NIMBY effort to stall progress.”
LA Metro seeks contract approval for pre-development work on Sepulveda transit proposals
LA Metro will ask its board of directors to approve contracts for pre-development work on two competing proposals for its Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project, which will connect the San Fernando Valley and LA’s Westside on a route paralleling the heavily used San Diego Freeway. LA SkyRail Express would receive a $63.6 million contract for work on a monorail plan, while Sepulveda Transit Corridor Partners-Bechtel would receive a $69.9 million contract for work on a heavy rail plan. A Metro blog post states both proposals “present benefits and trade-offs and will be refined further, based in part on public feedback and the environmental process moving forward” and that Metro will retain the ability “to move forward with one of the private sector teams… if its transit concept is ultimately chosen as the project’s locally preferred alternative.” The pre-development agreements allow early contractor involvement in the project and its design, engineering, construction, financing and operations. The teams to receive the contracts are among those previously cleared for the 13-mile project [see “LA Metro clears development team…,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 14, 2020] and represent the two highest-ranked proposals among four received in August 2020.
