Board Approves $219 Million for Airport Security

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey recently announced a series of major improvements and studies for the region's three major airports.

The authority's board approved a $219 million plan that will bring security enhancements to Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark and to LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports in Queens. One highlight of the initiative, according to a press release, is an $80 million allocation for perimeter intrusion detection systems. The board also approved a plan by Continental Airlines to integrate screening and check-in by moving CTX baggage screening equipment to its ticket counters at Newark Liberty's Terminal C.

The board also endorsed a $75 million contract award for T. Moriarity & Son of Brooklyn to construct a five-level, cast-in-place parking garage to serve a new terminal for American Airlines at Kennedy. The 1,940-space facility will connect to an AirTrain JFK light-rail station. Construction of the garage and related work on entry and exit plazas, roadways, and relocation of utilities should start this spring and finish in 2007.

Finally, the authority approved a pair of studies on how to meet an expected increase in passenger traffic in coming decades. It will apply up to $20 million for a study about modernizing Newark Liberty's Terminal C and up to $15 million to study the same for LaGuardia's Central Terminal.

Contractor Chosen for Water Plant Upgrade

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection awarded a $46.6 million contract to renovate and upgrade the 28-acre North River Pollution Control Plant in Manhattan to Gottlieb Skanska of Valley Stream, N.Y., an affiliate of Skanska USA Civil. Work began this year and is slated for a February 2009 completion.

Since Gottlieb must maintain operations at the wastewater treatment plant under Riverbank State Park on the Hudson River, the work is taking place in multiple phases and entails the installation of temporary systems, according to a company press release.

The contract calls for demolition and rebuilding of an aeration system, settling tanks, and a sludge treatment facility. A main project goal is to install new technologies and equipment in order to minimize odors that drift to an adjoining residential neighborhood. The plant treats half of Manhattan's sewage, handling an average of 170 million gallons per day with peak flows of 340 million gallons.

Another Skanska affiliate built the plant in 1987 on a caisson and pile-supported structural platform built over the Hudson River. The park above the facility's roof has a stadium, swimming pool, and playing fields.

Moynihan Station Planning Progresses

New York State expects to select a development team by early summer for Moynihan Station, the $600 million transit facility across the street from Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan. The state will pick the developer from three finalists: Boston Properties; a joint venture of Tishman Speyer Properties and Jones Lang LaSalle; and a team of the Related Cos. and Vornado Realty Trust.

The winning team will convert part of the U.S. Postal Service's grand Farley Post Office building into a 400,000-sq.-ft. intermodal transit facility linked to Penn Station by an extension of its West End Concourse. It will also develop up to 750,000 sq. ft. of commercial space and 1 million sq. ft. of unused development rights.

Proposals for the commercial development include a variety of retail spaces, hotels, public exhibition and performance venues, and a rooftop banquet hall. The finalists also proposed office or residential uses for the additional 1 million sq. ft.

The Moynihan Station's design by a joint venture of Skidmore Owings & Merrill and Parsons Brinckerhoff is nearing completion. "We hope to start work this fall on the station itself," said Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corp. and its subsidiary, Moynihan Station Development Corp.

N.J. Enacts "Pay-to-Play" Ban

New Jersey Acting Gov. Richard Codey recently signed a bill that curbs "pay-to-play" links between political contributions and state contract awards.

The new law codifies a 2004 executive order that bans contract awards valued at more than $17,500 to companies that give money within certain timeframes to a governor, gubernatorial candidate, or state or county party. The law addresses a snag created earlier this year when the Federal Highway Administration threatened to withhold funding for state projects. The new law exempts federally funded contracts, but New Jersey is still asking the FHA to change its policy.