The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey -- which has several multibillion-dollar projects, including a new bus terminal, in progress or at the starting gate -- has scrapped a 10-year capital plan that left out the bus terminal.

An entrance to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York
An entrance to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York (Spencer Platt, Getty Images)
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Authority Chairman John Degnan said Tuesday he anticipates the new plan will be ready for preliminary board approval this summer and, possibly, a final vote in September.

"This will be a totally new capital plan," Degnan said after appearing before a New Jersey Senate legislative oversight committee. "Originally it was going to be a revision of the 2014-2024 capital plan, but it was decided to do a new capital plan to run 2016-2026."

The authority operates bridges, tunnels, airports and ports as well as the World Trade Center site and New York's central bus terminal. It had come under strong criticism from commuters and public officials for leaving money for a new bus terminal off the $28 billion, 10-year plan unveiled in 2014.

Now, Degnan said Tuesday, board members have earmarked the bus terminal plus major redevelopments of LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports as items that must be included in the new plan.

Several other large-scale projects in the 2014 plan are in progress, such as the raising of the Bayonne Bridge, the replacement of the Goethals Bridge, work on the Pulaski Skyway and Lincoln Tunnel helix in northern New Jersey and replacement of suspender cables on the George Washington Bridge.

Hundreds of other smaller projects round out the 2014 capital plan.

Degnan said "some hard decisions are going to have to be made" on which projects are delayed, scaled back or scrapped altogether.

A roughly $1.3 billion plan to extend the PATH rail service from downtown Newark to Newark Liberty Airport is in the very early stages, and has been criticized as being redundant since two other rail lines already ply that route.

Degnan made a plug for the project Tuesday and said private entities have expressed interest in building a parking garage so that commuters could ride the PATH into New York from the airport.

"With a one-seat ride alternative from Newark Liberty Airport to downtown New York, that needs to be weighed in," he said. "This is an important project, and I'd love to find the money to do it."

An international design contest is underway for the bus terminal, Port Authority officials told the Senate panel Tuesday. Five finalists are scheduled to be selected by next month, and will submit their entries by August for the Port Authority board to discuss at its September meeting.

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