Biden Administration Allocates $500M For East Harlem 2nd Ave Subway

HARLEM, NY — The Second Avenue subway line getting extended into East Harlem took another step toward reality at the end of last week when President Joe Biden's Administration announced nearly $500 million in federal funding for the transit project.

The $497 million funding allocation was announced within the Biden Administration's budget release on Thursday.

"Proud to work with @POTUS to COMMIT nearly 500 MILLION for the East Harlem 2nd Ave Subway! #DemocratsDeliver," Upper Manhattan Congressman Adriano Espaillat tweeted Thursday.

A sum of nearly $500 million committed to a cause generally finishes the funding job, but not in the case of the long-dormant and incredibly expensive Second Avenue Subway line.

The extension into East Harlem is projected to cost a staggering $7.7 billion. New York officials have previously stated they need around $3.4 billion from the federal government to get the project done.

The money would go toward extending the Second Avenue subway line from East 96th Street to new stations at East 106th Street, to another new stop at East 116th Street, and then to a new level at the already operating station at Lexington Avenue and East 125th Street.

Part of the work is already done on the underground uptown extension, though.

The MTA built tunnels on Second Avenue between East 99th and 105th Streets, as well as between East 110th and 120th streets in the 1970s, but the city's financial crisis in 1975 put a stop to the work.

Those underground Harlem tunnels still sit unused 48 years later.

Regarding the rest of the funding, the Federal Transit Authority is expected to provide more than $3 billion in grants for the project.

Additionally, the $497 million in funding was part of the already approved $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed in 2021, meaning that the Harlem subway line allocation does not run the risk of removal during the expected upcoming contentious process between Democrats and Republicans over Biden's most recent budget.

The first phase of the Second Avenue subway line opened in 2017 after a decade of construction that cost $4.4 billion to fund.