MTA to move forward with Second Ave subway work, despite Trump’s push to kill the project

The MTA plans to move forward with a $1.1 billion contract to start digging and building a new train station at East 106th Street for the Second Avenue subway — despite a pending lawsuit the transit agency filed against the Trump administration over an order to halt funding for the megaproject.

MTA officials said Friday they plan to bring the contract to the agency’s board for approval next week. It comes days after the authority claimed in its lawsuit that work on the subway extension “will eventually have to come to a screeching halt” if the federal government continues to withhold funding.

Officials say they want to ensure no time is lost on the long-sought subway line while they wait for the lawsuit to play out in court. The agency plans to wait until a judge rules before finalizing the contract, but doesn’t want to have to go back to the MTA board for approval after the order comes down.

The federal transportation department under former President Joe Biden agreed to cover $3.4 billion — or 44% — of the project’s estimated $7.7 billion price tag. The work aims to extend the Q train into East Harlem and build new stations at 106th and 110th streets before connecting the line to the 4, 5 and 6 lines at 125th Street and Lexington Avenue.

The Trump administration halted funding from the grant in October, and the MTA’s lawsuit seeks to unlock nearly $60 million in payments the agency says are past due.

“If funding does not resume soon, the MTA will be forced to further divert critical funding from other important transportation projects to cover the shortfall and ensure that the project remains on schedule,” the MTA wrote in the lawsuit. “This is unsustainable and the steady progress on Phase 2 will eventually have to come to a screeching halt.”

The contract is the third of four contracts for the project. The MTA has already inked deals to relocate utilities and dig out the tunnel for the extension. The authority has one last contract for the project, which it hopes to put out for bid next year, and is still completing the designs for that work.

The MTA plans for trains to begin running on the new line by 2032.