Congratulations to New York City for developing yet another impressive dashboard. A couple of weeks ago we singled out the City Comptroller’s office for its innovative jail dashboard.

This week, we also wanted to mention a very useful NYC comprehensive capital projects tracker,  which was launched at the beginning of November and provides important details about a wide array of infrastructure projects from all the major city agencies that develop them. This includes bridges, sewers, sanitation projects, parks and more, with details on total cost, current phase and projected completion date for projects, as well as additional details for all construction. Here’s the link.

As New York City Comptroller Brad Lander wrote, “It’s no secret that capital projects in NYC take too long, cost too much, and deliver too little. It is terribly hard to track timelines and spending for capital projects.”

With that in mind, while he was still a council member, he pushed for Local Law 37, which mandated the creation of such a citywide tracker in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office. 

On November 1 it became a reality, with plans for refinements to the website design and the addition of an interactive map.

We’re looking forward to seeing how this develops. For example, one very useful element we’d like to see would be a transparent look at original estimated project costs and completion date projections, tracked through time, and compared to final costs and actual final opening. 

More timely information would benefit users, too.  As of November 10, 2023, the tracker was only current up through May 2023. That’s six months behind the time, and with the uncertainties involved in infrastructure projects, anything can happen to alter the timeline or the costs in half a year.

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