Makeover for aging, cramped Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan could start in 2024
Construction on a new $10 billion Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan could begin at the end of this year — the long-awaited start of a project to reconstruct a 73-year-old facility that was deemed obsolete in 2014.
“This is a game-changer. This is one of the largest projects that the Port Authority has undertaken in its 103-year history,” said Kevin O’Toole, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey board.
Thursday’s release of the latest federally required environmental report on the project kicks off a public hearing period from Feb. 2 through March 18, Port Authority officials said. Four public hearings will be held Feb. 20 through 22.
After the public input process, the Port Authority will need approval from the Federal Transit Administration, which is expected to sign off on the plan this summer, and then the bistate agency can proceed with construction.
While the Port Authority plans to pay for the majority of construction costs, it is also seeking a $1 billion loan from the FTA and hopes to develop payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements with the city to build two towers of commercial space that will help finance the project, to the tune of about $2.5 billion.
The Manhattan bus terminal is the nation’s largest and the world’s busiest, according to the agency. Individual carriers, the largest of which is NJ Transit, serve routes for daily commuters throughout New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and the lower Hudson Valley, and provide intercity services to and from locations such as upstate New York, New England, the Mid-Atlantic and Canada.
More than 190,000 passengers use the existing bus terminal daily.
Related: Port Authority cracks down on toll evaders, recovers over $25 million
Steps in Port Authority Bus Terminal construction
Here’s how construction is expected to go:
Phase 1 is expected to take place from 2024 through 2028 and includes rebuilding the ramps that take buses directly into the Lincoln Tunnel from the bus terminal, plus reconstructing the staging and storage area that will house buses during Phase 2.
Phase 2 is expected to take place from 2029 through 2032, when the main terminal will be torn down and rebuilt.
Once that is complete, two towers will be built in the 2030s above the easternmost portion of the main terminal. In addition, 3.5 acres near Dyer Avenue, which will have been paved over for construction staging, will be turned into green, community space.
The new terminal and storage space will be built so larger buses can navigate the facility, to accommodate electric bus charging, to provide additional space for intercity buses that currently clog streets when conducting passenger pickups and drop-offs, and to provide parking space for commuter buses, which can't park currently because it's too crowded.
“When the Port Authority Bus Terminal opened in 1950 it was celebrated as a miracle of transportation. But time, as we all know, has not been kind to the Port Authority," said Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority.
"The bus terminal has become a poster child for failed legacy infrastructure that desperately needs to be replaced,” Cotton said. “Our goal is to build a world-class bus terminal that is worthy of this region, best-in-class functionality, cutting-edge technology, inspiring civic architecture, supportive of the surrounding community.”
The terminal expanded in 1960 and 1981, and several efforts have occurred since then to make improvements to the flow of buses and people, plus other rehabilitations.
But the need for a completely new building has become apparent in recent years. Commuters snake around escalators and hallways while queueing for buses. Buses have to do laps around the building until gates open during rush hours. And the facility has a dreary, fortress-like design that makes it unattractive in the neighborhood.
Related: The tiles that line the inside of the Holland Tunnel are gone. Here's why
Rocky road to this point
Getting to this point has been rocky.
The bus terminal was left out of the bistate agency’s capital plan in the years after it was deemed obsolete. It was also not a priority project for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who tried to stall or limit funding for the terminal during his time in office.
In 2017, the agency dedicated $3.5 billion to the project in its 10-year capital plan, with officials saying then that they would “find a way to finish it” after that investment helped get shovels in the ground.
In 2019, the Port Authority revealed three options under consideration to expand and redesign the bus terminal, which were narrowed to one modified plan in 2021.
In August 2022, A. Epstein & Sons International and Foster+Partners were hired by the Port Authority to design and engineer a way to execute this plan, which is estimated to cost between $7.5 billion and $10 billion. Construction was supposed to have started before 2024 and at that time was expected to be fully complete in 2031.
Just weeks before the design firms were hired, the Port Authority approved spending some $28 million to support aging concrete trusses, plus more cleaning, repairs and inspections.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Port Authority bus terminal makeover in Manhattan could start in 2024
