NEW YORK — The Croton Water Filtration Plant is facing another setback as local reports estimate that the cost of the project has jumped to about $2.8 billion from an estimated $1.3 billion, according to a report by Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez.

Gonzalez’s report noted that city officials on May 17 “conceded for the first time” that the $1.3 billion water filtration plant project was over budget, having approved contracts worth at least $2 billion.

And that still may be an underestimate, according to state Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, D-Bronx, who has demanded an investigation into the cost overruns.

Dinowitz said in the Daily News column, “We estimate the real price tag is already $2.8 billion and growing.”

Dinowitz added that either city officials “lied” in their original cost estimate, or “they’re incompetent, or a combination of both,” reported Gonzalez.

Skanska, a Stockholm, Sweden-based construction company, recently announced that it won a $1.04 billion contract to build the Bronx-based facility that will be able to treat 320 million gallons of drinking water per day for New York City. That contract was covered under the original $1.3 billion facility price tag.

The city’s Department of Environmental Protection declined to offer comment, Gonzalez reported.

To read the full article, click here.

For related information on this story, click here.

For more of the latest news, click here.

To subscribe to Water Technology® magazine, click here.

To discuss this topic with other water and wastewater industry professionals, click here.