New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is working to expedite New York City airport capital projects by wresting authority from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Cuomo is setting up a committee very soon to oversee the projects at LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, an administration official said. The committee will take over oversight of the projects from the Port Authority, which owned the airports.
The governor first announced plans to assume management responsibility the airport projects in his Jan. 8 state of the state speech.
The Port Authority is very bureaucratic in its development of capital projects, the administration official said. Setting up the state committee will make the approval process go much quicker, the official said. The projects should come out better as well, he said.
The most significant project at the airports is the plan to construct a new central terminal at LaGuardia, the source said. This is currently out for bids.
The Port Authority will still have control over the total capital budgets for the two airports.
The official said Cuomo is trying to reproduce the success he had with the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River. For 10 years efforts to start a new bridge to replace the old one had no real progress. Less than two years after his inauguration Cuomo had chosen a bid for constructing the new bridge.
The authority currently plans for $3.6 billion in new work at LaGuardia airport. It is hoping that private funding will cover $2.5 billion. The port authority would cover the remaining $1.1 billion. Most of the $1.1 billion would be generated through the sale of bonds, an authority spokesman said.
The governor is also planning to upgrade Kennedy Airport's aging cargo infrastructure.
