advertisement

---

An agreement between the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will provide MTA with $111 million in transportation development credits to leverage $1 billion in federal disaster relief funding for Hurricane Sandy recovery and rebuilding efforts, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced late last week.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) awarded MTA $1 billion on March 29 as a reimbursement for Sandy recovery costs and rebuilding damaged parts of subway, commuter-rail and bus systems. The funding is in addition to more than $193 million in initial reimbursement allocated last month to MTA New York City Transit, MTA Metro-North Railroad and MTA Long Island Rail Road, and $3 million from Federal Emergency Management Agency for bridges and tunnels.

Because the latest $1 billion in federal dollars requires a 10 percent match, the NYSDOT approved an MTA request to use $111 million in transportation development credits to meet the requirement, Cuomo administration officials said in a press release.

The credits are a funding tool that enables states to fund a project without the requirement of a local match.

MTA's system sustained about $4.8 billion worth of damage as rail and subway lines, vehicular tunnels, subway stations, and power and signal equipment were inundated with corrosive salt water during the hurricane.