Port Authority runs $180M over for WTC transit station

The Port Authority will break into its piggy bank to finish the massive transit station under construction at the new World Trade Center.

The agency announced Thursday it will now cost $3.44 billion to build the complex, a whopping $180 million more than planned.

The reasons include rising insurance costs as well as increasing prices for construction materials and design revisions.

The steel for the wings of the iconic Santiago Calatrava building, designed to cover an underground complex of shops, concourses and transportation connections, are now expected to cost $221 million, almost twice the original estimate.

The overruns will be covered by a $600 million contingency fund established for the entire $11 billion WTC project; it’s the first time the fund has been tapped.

The complex is expected to finished and open to the public by 2014.