STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The MTA will not issue any new construction contracts in response to pending congestion pricing lawsuits, according to a report from Bloomberg News.
In a letter to contractors obtained by Bloomberg, Jamie Torres-Springer, the agency’s president of construction and development, attributed the pending legal action to the near-total stop on awarding new contracts.
“Due to this ongoing uncertainty, while litigation is pending, we will not be issuing any new construction contract solicitations, with limited exceptions for emergency work, small business mentoring contracts, and small projects with dedicated federal funding. We will only initiate procurements we expect to be able to award,” wrote Torres-Springer in the letter obtained by Bloomberg.
The congestion pricing program is expected to generate $1 billion annually, which will be used to secure $15 billion in bonds for repairs and improvements to the public transportation system.
PENDING LITIGATION
In January, Borough President Vito Fossella and United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Michael Mulgrew filed a lawsuit against the MTA and partner agencies like the U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT) to stop the congestion pricing plan from being implemented.
After the lawsuit was filed, most of Staten Island’s other elected officials joined as co-plaintiffs, including: Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/South Brooklyn); State Sens. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) and Jessica Scarcella-Spanton (D-North Shore/South Brooklyn); Assemblyman Michael Reilly (R-South Shore), and Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks (D-North Shore).
The suit, available online through the UFT, alleges that congestion pricing “would inflict environmental and economic damage on already challenged neighborhoods.”
The lawsuit calls for the MTA to conduct a more robust environmental impact survey (EIS) and argues that the environmental assessment (EA) already performed by the agency was “rushed and…
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