<p><span>It only seems like New York has been building the&nbsp;</span><span>Second Avenue subway</span><span>&nbsp;line since the Dutch owned Manhattan. First proposed about a century ago, the project has been underway in earnest&nbsp;</span>since 2007<span>, when ground broke on&nbsp;</span>Phase I<span>. The wait is nearly over: 2016 is the year when service on this segment&mdash;which connects 96th Street to 63rd Street, at a&nbsp;</span>cost of $4.45 billion<span>&mdash;will supposedly enter service. Unless of course it doesn&rsquo;t. During a board meeting this month the&nbsp;</span>MTA revealed<span>&nbsp;that the project carries a&nbsp;</span>&ldquo;moderate risk of delay&rdquo;<span>&nbsp;beyond the December 2016 opening, owing to power, station, and track complications. And regardless of whether Phase I launches on time, the subsequent segments remain a long, unfunded way off.</span></p>
<p><span>Infrastructure fans across the U.S. had plenty to enjoy in 2015. New York got its</span>first new subway station<span>&nbsp;in a quarter-century, Portland, Oregon, gave the U.S. a major bridge&nbsp;</span>that bans cars<span>, Houston&nbsp;</span>showed<span>&nbsp;</span>how<span>&nbsp;to reimagine a bus system for the 21st century&mdash;all of it punctuated by the passage of the first&nbsp;</span>long-term federal highway bill<span>&nbsp;in about a decade. That&rsquo;s a tough list to top, but 2016 will give it a run for its taxpayer money.</span></p>
<p><span>It only seems like New York has been building the&nbsp;</span><span>Second Avenue subway</span><span>&nbsp;line since the Dutch owned Manhattan. First proposed about a century ago, the project has been underway in earnest&nbsp;</span>since 2007<span>, when ground broke on&nbsp;</span>Phase I<span>. The wait is nearly over: 2016 is the year when service on this segment&mdash;which connects 96th Street to 63rd Street, at a&nbsp;</span>cost of $4.45 billion<span>&mdash;will supposedly enter service. Unless of course it doesn&rsquo;t. During a board meeting this month the&nbsp;</span>MTA revealed<span>&nbsp;that the project carries a&nbsp;</span>&ldquo;moderate risk of delay&rdquo;<span>&nbsp;beyond the December 2016 opening, owing to power, station, and track complications. And regardless of whether Phase I launches on time, the subsequent segments remain a long, unfunded way off.</span></p>