tunnels

MTA Bridges & Tunnels says the cost of repairing the damage done by Storm Sandy to the Brooklyn Battery and Queens Midtown tunnels could be around $750m.

In the tunnels the fear is most of the lighting and ceilings will have to be replaced because of corrosion from sea water inundation.

A spokesman said the tunnel repair costs are "early and preliminary figures" given to the governor’s office based on visual inspections 3-weeks post-Sandy.

She added: "They are not firm. The inspection process is continuing."

Oct 29 1am: Transit systems all over the mid-Atlantic area have been completely shut down well ahead of Hurricane Sandy, but highways are more resilient and too important to shut down except in dire circumstances.  As of writing the New York/northern NJ area looks most threatened by the big, slow storm.

In Norfolk there's last minute pressure to defer a financial close on the Elizabeth River tunnels toll concession with the Macquarie/Skanska partnership. And in northern Virginia Fairfax County and Loudoun County are being pressed to defer support for Phase 2 of the Silver Line Metrorail project that is dependent for financing on Dulles Toll Road tolls.

Misbehavior at Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) has provoked moves in the US Congress to give toll setting powers over bridges and tunnels to the US secretary of transportation. Veteran New Jersey Democrat senator Frank Lautenberg has introduced a "Commuter Protection Act" s2006 which would command that tolls over any bridge or tunnel on a Federal-aid highway (virtually all toll bridges and tunnels) be:

Ever since they were first proposed by French toller Cofiroute some (including us) have worried that their low overhead tunnelways (2.57m, 8.4ft, 101 inches) would seem claustrophic and deter customers.