News

Jul 23, 2023

Cost estimates unknown as NJ Transit board OKs $35M for MetLife road

NJ Transit officials are racing to get a new transit route up and running from Secaucus to MetLife Stadium ahead of the fast-approaching 2026 FIFA World Cup, and the board unanimously voted at

NJ Transit officials are racing to get a new transit route up and running from Secaucus to MetLife Stadium ahead of the fast-approaching 2026 FIFA World Cup, and the board unanimously voted at Wednesday’s board meeting to approve $35 million for HNTB Corp. to fully design this new corridor.

However, no actual estimate of the construction and procurement costs to build the dedicated roadway, to construct a new terminal and to stock it with vehicles has been publicly provided, which is unusual for a project of this size, especially after completion of the conceptual design and preliminary engineering phases.

"At this time, it is too early in the process for those estimates," said Jim Smith, an NJ Transit spokesman.

This is an extension of a contract awarded to HNTB in August 2021 to complete the earlier phases of the project for $3.5 million that included 10% design, according to board documents. Typically, a firm would complete about 30% design and then go out to bid again for the remainder of the design, or final design phase.

This project, however, is on a compressed schedule to be ready for the world's largest sports spectacle. New York and New Jersey are hosting World Cup games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, which is also in the running to host the Cup finals. To accelerate the process, the contract extension with HNTB is for 100% design and 30% of permit efforts to begin the federal environmental review process.

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The risk of doing it this way is that when it comes time for construction, the cost could be exorbitant and possibly prohibitive to build and launch the new transit route. Plus, there is the cost to operate and maintain it after that — other estimated dollar figures that weren't available Wednesday.

The current plan is for NJ Transit to operate and maintain the initial system, Smith said, and then solicit "concessionary services to own, operate and maintain the large, full system once that is complete."

The $35 million contract extension will be paid for with money from the New Jersey Department of Transportation. It's unclear what agency will pay for construction and procurement. If money is taken from NJ Transit's capital program to pay for this project, it could jeopardize other projects and add to the backlog in the unconstrained list of projects like the electric bus program, rail infrastructure repairs and light rail expansions. No federal grants have been secured to help pay for this, either, but it is "being set up" for potential future grant applications, Smith said.

Despite these risks and unknown costs, NJ Transit's board members did not ask any questions about those issues. The only questions came from board member Bob Gordon, who asked whether this project is being planned so it can be used after the World Cup and integrated with the larger network of nearby transit routes.

"We are looking at Phase 1, which will connect the Meadowlands sports and entertainment complex to our Secaucus transfer to meet the 2026 goal," said Rich Schaefer, NJ Transit's chief engineer. "Beyond that, we are looking to come back to the board at a future date to authorize the design ... for expansion of the system that would extend it and interconnect it to our other systems."

From the earliest days of interest in this project, there were challenges.

Because of that, NJ Transit, led by its board chair and state Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, held an Innovation Challenge that asked engineers to devise a project to help the agency augment its current service to the Meadowlands complex, which includes MetLife Stadium.

Currently, a stub-end train line shuttles the masses by the tens of thousands to the Meadowlands complex for horse races, sports events and concerts. The American Dream mall also opened there in 2019.

Most recently, the agency touted the success of ferrying nearly 80,000 people over three days for the Taylor Swift concerts in May, a huge success compared with past events, including the 2014 Super Bowl, a Wrestlemania event in 2019 and a Romeo Santos concert months after that, events that unexpectedly ran late.

The current Meadowlands train line can carry about 10,000 people an hour, but NJ Transit needs the ability to move more than double that in an hour. The tricky part is that the agency needed a project that would be cost-effective, able to traverse through wetlands, and operational before the World Cup.

After several industry events and requests for ideas, HNTB won the contract to begin work on its concept, which is a 7-mile dedicated roadway that starts at Secaucus Junction and connects to County Road, then to the abandoned Boonton rail line, before linking up with I-95.

There, a dedicated and protected road lane would run parallel to the highway until the exit for the Meadowlands, where a new terminal would be built. A dedicated road could allow for buses, shuttles or autonomous vehicles and pedestrian or cycling paths next to the transitway.