NEW YORK CITY-The 3.5-mile expansion of the Long Island RailRoad to Grand Central Terminal could take an extra three years—andnearly $1 billion more. Officials from the MetropolitanTransportation Authority said at a meeting Monday eveningthat the estimated completion time for the agency’s EastSide Access megaproject has been pushed back to August2019 at a cost of $8.24 billion.

The project, originally expected to be completed by 2016 on abudget of approximately $7.2 billion, is based upon constructiondelays in both Manhattan and Queens. According to a presentationfrom the MTA, delays in the rebuilding and expansion of the Haroldinterlocking site – a one-mile swath connecting Queens Boulevard,Sunnyside Rail Yard and 43^rd Street –resulted inschedule compression that “placed stress on resources and outages.”More specifically, MTA chairman Joseph Lhota toldLong Island Business News thattunneling underneath the Queens rail yard near Jamaica where Amtrakand Acela store trains in addition to its own vehicles, has "becomean issue." In addition, environmental problems such as contaminatedsoil has also caused delays, he explained.

At the Harold site, the MTA is working to replace and add 92 newswitches, replace 11 miles of new track, construct five newrailroad bridges and build two, 1,000-foot long new bypass tunnels,according to the presentation. The MTA says most of thisinfrastructure will online prior to the East Side Access’ revenueservice and will provide a “significant benefit” to Amtrak and LIRRoperations.