Cuomo’s Long Island Sound crossing could cost as much as $55 billion

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s already called for $100 billion in infrastructure projects, so what’s a few tens of billion dollars more?

The Democratic governor wants to build a bridge or a tunnel crossing Long Island Sound that would connect Suffolk and Nassau counties with Westchester County

The price tag? A recent feasibility study found it could be as high as a whopping $55 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. That would make it one of the most expensive infrastructure projects in the country.

“In terms of thinking big and projects that can be transformative for the region, this can be one of the biggest,” said Kevin Law, president of the economic and business advocacy group Long Island Association.

At the high end of the study, an 18-mile tunnel from Oyster Bay to Rye could cost between $32 billion and $55 billion, depending on how many lanes of traffic it would carry. A bridge covering the same route could cost roughly $8.5 billion. A bridge or tunnel from Kings Park, N.Y. to Bridgeport, Conn. could cost between $13 billion and $23 billion, the feasibility study found.

Somewhere between 87,000 and 113,000 cars and trucks would travel though a cross-Sound connection each day by 2040, and the tolls could generate up to $556 million annually. [WSJ] – Rich Bockmann