One of the first portions of the World Trade Center PATH station has opened beneath West Street in Manhattan. The 100-foot-long pedestrian passageway provides a taste of Santiago Calatrava's design and what a seemingly unlimited budget can buy you.
I guess its not surprising that the world's most expensive train station has birthed the world's most expensive hallway. "The station’s total cost — $4 billion, plus another few hundred million for temporary stations — was what most first-world cities would pay for an entire rail line," notes Stephen J. Smith. "And this single pedestrian underpass, which runs from an office complex across the West Side Highway (which, despite its reinvention as West Street, still feels a lot like a highway), looks to account for at least $100 million."
According to Smith, the "cavernous and blindingly white" passageway, which connects the future station to the World Financial Center, seems to have dodged multiple cost-cutting bullets.
"The aboveground elements weren’t so lucky," he adds. "It turns out that the record-setting sum of $4 billion didn’t even buy New York a complete Calatrava design. The light and airy bird-like structure with a retractable roof simulating flight was value-engineered down, its wings rendered immobile and its rib-like supports doubled, leading to a heavier-looking structure."
FULL STORY: This $100 Million, Calatrava-Designed Tunnel Is the World’s Most Expensive Hallway

Trump Administration Could Effectively End Housing Voucher Program
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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Ken Jennings Launches Transit Web Series
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California has awarded $500 million to fund 1,000 zero-emission school buses and chargers for educational agencies as part of its effort to reduce pollution, improve student health, and accelerate the transition to clean transportation.

Congress Moves to End Reconnecting Communities and Related Grants
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee moved to rescind funding for the Neighborhood Equity and Access program, which funds highway removals, freeway caps, transit projects, pedestrian infrastructure, and more.

From Throughway to Public Space: Taking Back the American Street
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