Dive Brief:
- New York City announced on Thursday that it will contribute about $2 billion toward the $10 billion Midtown Bus Terminal Replacement and Expansion, moving the megaproject another key step toward realization.
- Despite being the country’s largest and busiest bus terminal, the existing facility in midtown Manhattan is 73 years old and functionally obsolete. The new terminal is designed to meet projected 2040-2050 commuter growth, reduce congestion, improve the customer experience and enhance the surrounding community, per the release.
- The city’s promised funding is in the form of 40 years of tax revenue from three potential new commercial developments, two of which will be atop the new bus terminal and a third that will be built at a nearby site. Construction could begin at the end of the year, northjersey.com reported.
Dive Insight:
The Midtown Bus Terminal project is expected to create 6,000 union construction jobs, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is in charge of the work. The Port Authority plans to pay for the bulk of the construction costs, and it is also seeking a $1 billion loan from the Federal Transit Administration.
“Our agreement with the city to provide a portion of the financing toward a new Midtown Bus Terminal will allow the Port Authority to move forward with a project that will generate economic benefits for our entire region while improving the quality of life in the community where the terminal is located,” said Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole in the release. “We will replace this aging eyesore with a world-class gateway our region deserves.”
In August 2022, the Port Authority tapped Chicago-based A. Epstein & Sons International and London-headquartered Foster+Partners to design and engineer the new facility. It’s not clear when the agency will take bids for construction.
The project entails a new 2.1 million-square-foot main terminal, a separate storage and staging building and new ramps leading directly to the Lincoln Tunnel. The added capacity will allow inter-city buses that currently pick up and drop off on the streets surrounding the bus terminal to move their operations inside.
The revised plan would permanently close a portion of 41st Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, improving pedestrian connectivity and adding a central main entrance, more street-level retail, an indoor atrium and new public open space. New attractive facades are designed to boost the facility’s visual appeal.
Work is expected to be done in phases, per the release. A temporary terminal and new ramps are slated to be completed in 2028, and the overall project is expected to wrap in 2032.