The long-awaited rebuilding of the Port Authority Bus Terminal got its first nod from federal regulators Thursday, as agency officials announced the giant project in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood is expected to cost $10 billion to complete.
The Federal Transit Administration green-lit the project’s draft environmental impact statement, kicking off a 45-day public comment period and bringing the plans one step closer to federal approval — which could come before the end of 2024, Port Authority officials said.
The entire project should be completed in around eight years, the Port Authority says.
“This really is an exciting day — it’s been a long time coming,” Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton said Thursday. “Time, as we all know, has not been kind to the Port Authority [Bus Terminal],”
The plan is to replace the existing 74-year-old eyesore with a modern, 2.1 million-square foot facility designed with an eye toward the surrounding community.
“Rather than a fortress that fences the community out, we will build outward facing concessions that are inviting and cater to the Hell’s Kitchen community and other communities around the bus terminal,” Cotton said.
The terminal would include an indoor atrium as well as public park space built over the Dyer Ave. cut.
The new facility would consist of three new structures — a new main terminal between Eighth and Ninth Aves., a “staging and storage” facility between Ninth and 10th Aves., and brand new bus ramps leading from the terminal.
Those ramps, Cotton said, will “connect buses directly into the Lincoln Tunnel without a bus ever needing to touch or clog up community streets.”
The new terminal would serve intercity buses that currently make curbside pickups outside the terminal. Idling commuter buses would no longer clog surface streets, but wait for gate space inside the staging and storage building.
The new ramps are slated to be built by 2028. Port Authority officials estimate the total complex will be completed in 2032.
The current $10 billion price tag is $7 billion more than the Port Authority’s current capital plan budgets for the terminal’s replacement.
Cotton addressed that Thursday, saying his agency would cover “a majority” of the costs by stretching the project into the Port Authority’s next capital plan, which is slated to begin in 2026.
The Port Authority will also be applying for federal grants, and plans to build commercial real estate above the completed terminal in order to retroactively fund the project.
Public hearings on the project are scheduled for the end of February.
