Cuomo Unveils $306 Billion Infrastructure Plan For New York

NEW YORK CITY — Planes, trains and automobiles are the lynchpin of a far-reaching $306 billion infrastructure plan for New York that Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled Thursday, calling it the "largest, most ambitious plan put forward by any state in the nation."

In his fourth and final State of the State address Thursday, Cuomo outlined a strategy of using public-sector investment in transit and transportation infrastructure to lift New York's economy up from the pandemic-era slump with such projects as expanding Penn Station, redoing the Port Authority Bus Terminal, extending the Second Avenue Subway to East Harlem and continuing work to modernize LaGuardia and JFK Airports.

Central to the plan is what Cuomo referred to as the "Midtown West Redevelopment," which calls for a $51 billion plan to turn the Manhattan region into a "transit-oriented development on a scale never attempted," he said.

It would encompass a new state-of-the-art facility to replace the Port Authority Bus Terminal, a $16 billion project to reconstruct Penn Station and add at least eight new tracks, 14 new buildings with retail space and up to 1,400 affordable apartments, a new waterfront park at Pier 76 and a $1.5 billion expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Center.

In total, Cuomo said, the redevelopment is projected to create 196,000 jobs.

Cuomo invoked Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal to tout public-sector investment as key to economic recovery and instilling public confidence in New York.

"Part of Roosevelt's genius was that he understood that it was not the buildings and programs themselves that actually turned around the economy, it was the people," Cuomo said. "Building new projects enhances day-to-day life. Seeing progress lifts peoples' spirits. And building with bricks and mortar also builds public optimism and confidence."