Transportation:
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is rushing to finish the long-delayed Second Avenue subway this month, but officials at a board meeting Monday once again didn’t announce an opening date, with less than three weeks left to meet their Dec. 31 deadline. [New York Times]
The $550 million replacement of the Kosciuszko Bridge appears to be on time and on budget. The opening of the first of the bridge’s two cable-stayed spans in spring 2017 will mean clemency for drivers on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway who are used to a bone-jarring crossing over Newtown Creek (when traffic is moving, that is)—and millions of dollars in savings. [Crain’s New York Business]
In less than two years, an Amtrak project to build a new rail tunnel tunnel linking Midtown Manhattan and New Jersey has gone from nearly dormant to the nation’s top transportation priority. But uncertainty remains regarding the funding, the special development corporation tapped to coordinate the project and what a Trump presidency will mean for Gateway. [Politico]
Energy and Environment:
The Pinelands Commission is considering the merits of two natural-gas pipelines proposed to run through parts of the 1-million-acre preserve it oversees. Its decisions likely will be viewed as pivotal in determining future development within the Pinelands, the largest remaining expanse of open space, woodlands, and vast water resources on the Eastern Seaboard between Boston and Washington, D.C. [NJ Spotlight]
A new RPA report highlights the parts of the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area that are most vulnerable to sea level rise, including beach communities in Long Island [Newsday], the New Jersey Meadowlands [WNYC] and neighborhoods in New York City. [Curbed NY]
Connecticut policy makers are scrambling to develop a new energy strategy now that decisions in Massachusetts and New Hampshire have stalled multibillion-dollar pipeline projects to bring more natural gas to New England. Environmentalists argue this is a perfect time for the state to commit more money and effort to energy efficiency and developing renewable sources like solar and wind power. [Hartford Courant]
Community Planning and Design:
The bustling riverfront envisioned for a tattered stretch of warehouses and parking lots in the South Bronx is still many years away. But that has not stopped the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio from going ahead with a $194 million plan to improve the infrastructure in a 30-block area on the Bronx side of the Harlem River. [New York Times]
A new book by Sam Lubell chronicles New York’s buildings, monuments and other structures that never came to fruition. [WNYC]
Photo: Ben Oldenburg