World Trade Center Transit Hub Opens Under Cloud of $4B Cost

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

World Trade Center Transit Hub Opens Under Cloud of $4B Cost

By KAREN MATTHEWS, ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK — Feb 27, 2016, 11:13 AM ET

The soaring, white transportation hub opening next week at the World Trade Center was designed to evoke a bird in flight, but it is hatching under a cloud.

There will be no ribbon-cutting celebration when the train station's grand hall, called the Oculus, opens this coming week because the head of the bistate agency that controls the hub has blasted it as a "symbol of excess," with runaway costs approaching $4 billion.

That's roughly the same price as the nation's tallest skyscraper, next door — the 104-story One World Trade Center.

"The cost of projects, big and small, matters — a lot," Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said in a statement through a spokesman. "Whether due to unforeseen conditions, errors or misconduct, cost overruns consume precious resources and undermine public confidence."

After first indicating that there would be no ceremony at all, officials with the authority said late Thursday that the transit facility would partially open on March 3 and that there would be a ceremony when it becomes "fully operational" later this spring.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/world-trade-center-transit-hub-opens-cloud-4b-37242800

[longship]

1. Maybe they could put in $100 turnstiles.

$100, or no train for you!