TUNNEL OF GOV
Blows MTA’s $ 30M on vanity retiling project
The subways are a disaster, so how is Gov. Cuomo ordering the cash-strapped MTA to spend its money? By blowing $300 million to retile the Queens -- Midtown (above) and Brooklyn-Battery tunnels in the state’s blue-and-gold color scheme. “We could have found much better uses for that money,” fumed one MTA board member.
Gov. Cuomo ordered the cashstrapped MTA to waste as much as $30 million on his latest vanity project — retiling two city tunnels in the state’s blue-and-gold color scheme — instead of using the funds for desperately needed subway repairs, The Post has learned.
The boondoggle began soon after the taxpayer-funded transit agency ordered white tiles to reline the Brooklyn-Battery and Queens-Midtown tunnels after Hurricane Sandy, documents show.
The governor got wind of the plan and insisted the MTA add stripes of blue and gold, thinking nothing of the additional $20 million to $30 million cost, according to sources and paperwork.
“The white tile had already been ordered, but he insisted that [the walls] be in the state colors,’’ a top construction exec told The Post.
Another builder confirmed that Cuomo ordered the costly tile change.
The move now has some on the MTA board seeing red.
“We could have found much better uses for that money — especially because most people are speeding through the tunnels and not paying attention to what is on the walls,” seethed board member Andrew Albert.
A second member added, “This is exactly the type of distraction, expense and use of the MTA by the governor as a marketing tool that is at the root of many of our problems.”
The Cuomo-controlled MTA quietly approved the change in November 2016, months before straphangers endured the “Summer of Hell’’ as years of neglect caught up with the system.
The MTA is still struggling to find cash to overhaul its decrepit subway signal system, replace decades-old trains and repair crumbling stations.
The MTA buried Cuomo’s tile change in two contract amendments worth $62.6 million.
Gavin Masterson, chief procurement officer of the bridges and tunnels division, described the changes at a committee meeting as “modifications to meet New York state branding guidelines.”
The MTA refused to make the contracts available to The Post.
The governor cut the ribbon at the Queens-Midtown tunnel Friday, revealing the blue and gold stripes that run its length. He joked about the added work. “These construction workers had an added burden to deal with because every time I went through the tunnel, I would get out and I would call them over and say, ‘You see this tile is crooked,’ ” Cuomo said.
But the micromanaging is no laughing matter to some workers, who say it has gotten so bad they call him “Chief Engineer Cuomo.”
The tunnels are just the latest example of Cuomo’s vanity spending. His office bragged in 2016 about painting the MTA’s new subway cars in the blue-and-gold color scheme, which later appeared on the MTA’s new city buses. State police cars have been repainted in the same colors.
Straphangers were outraged over the wasteful spending.
“I don’t know what cousin of [Cuomo’s] works at what agency that cooked up this idea,” said Ka- trina Brinkley, 39, as she stood under a dangling wire at the Chambers Street J/Z station near City Hall — where missing tiles and leaking ceilings are the norm.
“This station is decrepit. That money could go to so many other things.’’
Le-André Ramroop of Brooklyn added, “Has [Cuomo] ever seen this place? Has he been down here?”
An MTA spokesman did not dispute the pricey tile change but said, “There were absolutely no wasted tiles.”
“The tunnel-reconstruction project is an unmitigated success — finished nine months ahead of schedule and with resiliency and security measures that protect millions of New Yorkers,” the rep, Jon Weinstein, told The Post.
Cuomo spokesman Peter Ajemian said, “We’re proud that we completed this project on budget and ahead of schedule thanks to the men and women at the MTA and other partners.”