"First proposed in 1929 and more recently dubbed by New York magazine as “the line that time forgot,” the Second Avenue subway line on the East Side of Manhattan has been a perennial wish-list item for the better part of a century. The line would ease overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue line, which currently shuttles 1.3 million people every day, but over the years it’s been repeatedly delayed by economic downturns and political in-fighting. A construction attempt in the 1970s was eventually aborted due to lack of funds. Finally, in April 2007, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) broke ground on the Second Avenue line. The first phase -- a $4.45 billion two-mile section with two new tunnels and three new stations on the Upper East Side -- could be operational by the end of 2016, according to the MTA.
But the Federal Transit Administration is not as optimistic. It believes the project could take significantly longer and will end up costing $410 million more than MTA’s estimate. And that’s just Phase 1. Extending the line uptown to Harlem and downtown to the Financial District, a total of 8.5 miles, is expected to cost at least another $13 billion, and none of that money has been secured. A fully functional Second Avenue line could remain a Big Apple fable for many years to come."
Reference: The 5 Biggest U.S. Infrastructure Projects Plus 5 at Risk
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