New York port authority 'damaged' by scandals

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, owner of much of the New York area's infrastructure, has suffered a "good deal of damage" from political scandals, its top manager has admitted as the body embarks on a contentious $28bn capital spending programme.

Patrick Foye, executive director, was speaking as current and former Port Authority officials face investigations over a series of scandals, including Bridgegate - the politically motivated closure in 2013 of parts of the George Washington Bridge linking New Jersey and New York.

The authority has also faced criticism for spending $4bn on a single subway station at the site of its new World Trade Center building. There have been further questions over projections that a replacement for the crumbling Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan will cost at least $10bn - more than twice the $4.5bn projected cost for the first three-station phase of New York's new Second Avenue subway line.

The authority, jointly owned by the states of New York and New Jersey, manages all the region's airports and seaports, the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (Path) subway system, six bridges and tunnels between the two states as well as other assets, including the World Trade Center.

It is one of many US infrastructure owners grappling with a series of systemic problems, including shortages of dedicated funding and prohibitively expensive construction costs that have left the country's transport infrastructure lagging behind competitors.

Mr Foye, who was appointed in 2011 by Andrew Cuomo, New York governor, said the authority was taking a step-by-step approach to restoring its reputation after the scandals.

Among the allegations that prosecutors are examining alongside Bridgegate are the "chairman's flight" case. United Airlines, which operates 70 per cent of flights at New Jersey's Newark airport, ran from September 2012 until last April a lightly used twice-weekly service between Newark and a small South Carolina airport near the weekend home of David Samson, the authority's then chairman.

The Bridgegate scandal concerned a period of four days in September when officials from the Port Authority blocked off two road lanes leading from Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge, causing traffic chaos. Internal emails since published revealed that a political appointee at the authority was acting on orders from an official in the office of Chris Christie, New Jersey's governor, targeting Fort Lee's mayor.

"[Reforming the authority's reputation] is a long-term project," said Mr Foye. "A good deal of damage has been done to the good name of the port by the actions of a few, and it is going to take a long time to repair that damage."

As part of a planned governance reform, the authority plans to appoint a chief executive to replace the existing roles of executive director, appointed by New York, and deputy executive, appointed by New Jersey. Mr Foye said he was considering applying for the role.

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Such changes should ensure there was no repeat of the scandals, said Mr Foye, adding: "Reform is an ongoing process."

Under its first-ever long-term expenditure plan, the authority plans to spend almost $28bn on a range of projects, including $6.8bn on improving the area's three international airports: John F Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark. The work will include replacing LaGuardia's central terminal with a new facility built by a private contractor and the redevelopment of Newark's terminal A.

The airports have been starved of investment as the authority has concentrated instead on the construction of the new World Trade Center on the site of the towers destroyed on September 11 2001. "The Port Authority is not happy with the state of the airports," said Mr Foye.

However, some elements of the authority's expenditure plan have been criticised as poor use of public money. This includes spending $1.8bn on extending the Path train to Newark, which many observers doubt is justified. The high cost of the new bus terminal has also been questioned.

Mr Foye said that projections for the project to cost at least $10bn reflected not only the high costs of building in the heart of Manhattan but also the challenges of constructing ramps for a multi­storey building handling 30-ton buses. "It is a key facility in a busy part of town," he said.

Yet the executive director did accept criticism of the decision to spend $4bn on a new Path station at the World Trade Center, designed by Santiago Calatrava, the acclaimed Spanish architect. "If we were to make the choice today whether to spend $4bn on the transportation hub, including a substantial amount of federal money, I believe we would come to a different decision," he said.

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