Nov 30, 2008 1:00 pm US/Eastern
Report: NYC Water Plant Price Doubles In 5 Years
BRONX (AP) ―
Rising construction prices, design changes and a dearth of bidders have more than doubled the cost of a gigantic water filtration plant being built 10 stories beneath a Bronx driving range, budget experts have found.
The plant is now expected to cost nearly $3.1 billion, up from $1.3 billion in 2003. Early estimates from the 1990s put it at $660 million.
The skyrocketing price tag has been one of several areas of concern on the part of critics, who say the plant has been horribly mismanaged by the city. Officials say the project, which the city was required to build, is making good progress after a slow start.
The plant, due to be completed in 2012, is designed to filter up to a quarter of the city's water supply, or about 300 million gallons a day. The project will be New York City's first drinking water filtration facility, and is believed to be the first subterranean water plant in the nation.
Both the city and critics of the project see vindication in the agency's cost assessment, presented in October to a group of community leaders.
Opponents say the budget office findings show the agency overseeing the project, the city Department of Environmental Protection, underestimated its cost.
''We all felt that building such a large facility in a hole would be more costly,'' said Anne Marie Garti, a longtime critic of the project and the president of a local advocacy group.
The DEP said Wednesday it was pleased the budget office's analysis was finished.
''We believe they provided an accounting of the current costs of the (plant) as well as the growth in project costs,'' the agency said in a statement.
In explaining the rocketing price tag, the DEP has often emphasized industrywide escalation in construction costs. The budget agency said that explains just under half the jump in the water plant's bottom line.
Major design modifications also played a role, the budget office said. The DEP said ''the scope of the plant evolved, as is the case with all major construction projects.''
When it came time to build, the DEP had limited opportunities to drive a bargain. Only two firms bid on the main construction contract, the budget office noted.
The first-choice company ultimately dropped out, forcing the DEP to take a $200 million higher bid from the other firm. The company is being paid $1.3 billion.
The budget agency's tally also includes more than $100 million for repairing a 110-year-old aqueduct which the DEP considers a separate project and $106 million in security features, a chemical-storage facility and a clubhouse and other work to enhance the golf course next to the plant. That's on top of more than $200 million in Bronx parks upgrades to compensate for disrupting the driving range, which is to be restored.
Critics who wanted the plant built elsewhere have long been convinced the city downplayed the expense of the subterranean site in Van Cortlandt Park. But DEP officials have said it's a more secure, cheaper option than other potential sites that required longer tunnels to the water supply.
The budget agency didn't review the engineering considerations but concluded construction costs generally would have risen at similar rates at the other locations.
Water users will ultimately pay the rising tab. The DEP has said the filtration plant accounts for about 7 percent of water users' bills, a figure comparable to those for other large-scale projects.
The city comptroller is auditing to determine whether DEP is carrying out construction effectively at the water plant. The city Department of Investigation has a full-time monitor at the site.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency ordered the city in 1993 to build the filtration plant. It will treat water from reservoirs in a largely suburban area known as the Croton watershed.
Most of city's water supply, piped in from rural areas more than 75 miles away, will remain unfiltered.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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