Port Authority Paid $500K for Unsolicited and Unused Plans: Report

The payment for the Goethals and Bayonne bridge designs came after two authority commissioners with ties to Santiago Calatrava privately pressed agency staffers

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey paid $500,000 to noted architect Santiago Calatrava for Goethals and Bayonne bridge designs that the agency didn't request and can't use, according to a published report.
 
Citing agency documents it obtained, The Record says the payment came after two authority commissioners with ties to Santiago Calatrava privately pressed agency staffers to incorporate the designs into construction of two bridges between New Jersey and New York.

The pair also helped provide the architect with insider access to pitch his plans, the newspaper said. But Port Authority engineers and lawyers quickly rejected the designs for the bridges as unworkable and unneeded.
 
The authority eventually paid Calatrava's firm $500,000 in July 2012. The agency justified the work as helping to affirm its original plans for the Goethals project, the newspaper reported.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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