MTA reports nearly $300M in capital savings

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Construction and Development (C&D) agency has reported nearly $300 million in capital program cost savings as part of its 2023 year in review and 2024 strategic plan.

The plan outlines initiatives to improve the delivery of capital projects and modernize the transit system better, faster and cheaper, MTA officials said in a press release.

The strategic plan lays out initiatives the department is undertaking to drive down costs and deliver the capital program at scale, including innovative delivery models, bundling projects together, and cutting red tape, and shares results of those efforts, the release said.

In 2023, the MTA completed more than $7 billion in capital projects, the highest in MTA history. It also awarded more than $8 billion in new commitments, with those awards coming in 6.2% below the engineer’s estimate, saving nearly $300 million. 

Some 2023 project examples include:

• Long Island Railroad (LIRR) third track was completed on time and $100 million under budget;
• LIRR Penn Station 33rd Street Concourse was completed on time and under budget; and
• 28 projects were completed since 2020 to make stations accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

MTA's report also provides an update on the recommendations made by the consultant firm Crowe, which performed a forensic evaluation of the MTA’s capital planning process in 2019. Since the audit — which coincided with the creation of MTA C&D as a new unified capital delivery agency — the MTA has focused on cost containment, with 90% of 2020-2024 capital projects costs within budget.

MTA also reduced project schedules by an average of four months and accelerated the scale of work in construction, tripling the number of accessibility upgrade projects underway, the MTS press release said.