The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey board of directors has approved a plan to replace the dilapidated 65-year-old bus terminal in New York City, according to a report from the Washington Times.
The Port Authority will hold an international design competition for the design of the new bus terminal and will choose a winner by September 2016.
The Washington Times adds that Port Authority's board says the approval of the plan is major step forward following roughly two years after the agency commissioned its own master plan for the bus terminal.
The project is expected to cost from $7 billion to $10 billion and will take several years to complete.
The Washington Times adds that Patrick Foye, an executive director at Port Authority, said that the long-time that it took to decide how to come up with the design has "served the project well."
He said it is "an unbelievably complicated project, with construction being done at the crossroads of the world, at the site of some of the most important and expensive real estate in the world."
The Washington Times adds that John Degnan, the chairman of Port Authority, said that he hopes the approval is a giant step forward.
He said that the approval will hopefully move them "forward on an accelerated basis toward completing a project that's so desperately needed."
NJ.com adds that the contest idea for the design of the new terminal came from Commissioner David Steiner of New Jersey.
Entries for the contest would help the board pick a concept plan for the bus terminal that was recommended by a working group of the board of commissioners.
NJ.com adds that the plan would call for a new bus terminal to be located between the 9th and 11th Avenues, a block west from the current structure of old bus terminal.
The plan also calls for a bus "staging area," where it allows buses arriving from New Jersey to remain in Manhattan between the morning and evening peak periods.
