The New York and New Jersey Port Authority seems to have some peculiar priorities.
Item: The agency has been without a permanent Director of Operations for over two years. The Acting Director, Stephanie Dawson, has been recruited from her former position as Chief of Staff and as Assistant to the Director.
http://www.linkedin.com/...
Now, while it is well known that assistants do most of the work, they tend not to have much clout. Which might account for why Baroni and Wildstein were able to circumvent the chain of command and get the lanes to the GWB closed. It may also explain why the agency has not been able to come up with a capital plan.
Item: Operations at the PANYNJ seem to be lumped in with Real Estate Development, as evidenced by the existence of an Assistant Director of Development and Operations, Real Estate and Development (Gerard A. Del Tufo). Apparently, operations are an afterthought.
Item: When the proposal to replace traffic information signage on the approaches to the George Washington Bridge was considered and approved, the Authority had to hold a Special Meeting of the Committee of Operations because at least two members of the Board, Samson and Sartor, had to recuse themselves from voting to spend about thirteen million dollars. They would have lacked a quorum, an apparently common occurance.
Item: The Intelligent Transportation Systems signage replacement project, for which three million dollars worth of planning had, apparently, not yet commenced in November of 2012, was justified, in part, by the increased traffic that would be generated by one event (wait for it), the Super Bowl at the Meadowlands in 2014. No wonder it had to be "expedited."
When completed, the ITS replacement project would disseminate timely travel information, improve traffic flow, reduce traffic congestion, and enhance traffic safety on the GWB and its approaches. In addition, the priority sign replacements would provide facility condition and roadway/lane closure information to help mitigate impacts in the short term during the major regional construction projects that are currently underway or planned and the expected increased traffic as a result of the 2014 Super Bowl, which will be held at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey.
For one day, for an event that's ten miles away.
Item: State of the art design and construction seems a foreign principle to the Port Authority, whose primary environment is, after all, water. To wit:
During the week of October 28, 2012, Hurricane Sandy and its associated storm surge caused significant flooding and devastating damage in Lower Manhattan and throughout the New York-New Jersey region. The storm resulted in severe flooding throughout the WTC site, particularly affecting the WTC Transportation Hub, Vehicular Security Center, WTC Memorial Museum, and One WTC, among other WTC projects in construction. Although the de-watering of the WTC site was substantially completed in early November, and pre-storm levels of construction activity resumed throughout the WTC site by the end of November 2012, Hurricane Sandy recovery activities are ongoing, to assess and evaluate damaged areas and equipment for future repair or replacement, including efforts to mitigate the impacts of future storms. Through separate actions at its meetings from February 6, 2013 through May 29, 2013, the Board, and the Committee on Operations, acting for and on behalf of the Board pursuant to the By-Laws, ratified and authorized certain actions required for Hurricane Sandy response, recovery and restoration work at the WTC site through June 30, 2013, in a total estimated amount of $306 million.
That meeting was held on June 26, 2013 and took all of 35 minutes. Supposedly, there were eleven speakers, including five members of the public, so it was all above board. As I opined early on, the Christie Jam seems to have been the final straw. There's a lot of mismanagement to complain about.
While there seems to have been a lot of scheming going on, planning not so much.
********
Update: I should not have used the acronym in the title.
