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May 20, 2015- The Port Authority can destroy architectural projects like no other bureaucracy. The WSJ reports, “Instead, it has become a budgetary boondoggle, its cost doubling to nearly $4 billion, which gives it the unenviable distinction of the world’s most expensive train station….but he noted that he was selected in 2013 to design a replacement for a Greek Orthodox Church destroyed in the 2001 terrorist attacks. …
The nearly 14-year effort—for which his firm has collected more than $80 million, according to a person familiar with the payments—has been marred by frequent public fighting between the governmental and private parties involved.
Bursting budgets throughout the 16-acre site have weighed heavily on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the body that owns the site. The agency has delayed other projects like renovations of the region’s airports, and tolls on bridges and tunnels to New Jersey have more than doubled in recent years to raise revenue.
Attention by agency officials and observers has focused on the PATH station, largely because it has suffered the biggest overruns and lengthiest delays. The new station for PATH, which stands for Port Authority Trans-Hudson, is scheduled to mostly open late this year, a contrast with the 2007 date targeted when state officials requested money in 2003 from the federal government for the project.”