Last week the MTA announced plans to move forward with the extension of the number 7 line, but as it turns out, not all MTA officials are onboard with the plan. NY1 Transit reporter Bobby Cuza explains in the following report.

When the MTA went looking for contractors to build the extension of the number 7 line to Manhattan's far west side, exactly one construction team submitted a bid.

Even though there was no competition, agency negotiators announced Friday that they were happy with the price they worked out for the tunneling work — about $1.1 billion, or just barely over budget.

But the agency didn't expect board members to criticize the deal at a committee meeting Monday.

"I can't, for me as a fiduciary here, sit here and go ahead and approve a contract for over $1.1 billion of state money, or city money, or both, without having competitive bids,” said MTA Vice Chairman Andrew Saul.

And without what some considered a key component of the plan. As negotiated the 7 extension will result in just one new station by the Javits Center at 34th Street and 11th Avenue. Plans to build the shell of a second station at 41st Street and 10th Avenue have been dropped because of the unexpectedly high cost — some $450 million.

The contract still includes that option, but only if someone comes up with that $450 million in the next nine months.

"If funding becomes available, certainly that option can be exercised and the station can be built as a part of the project,” said Mysore Nagaraja of the MTA Capital Construction Company.

The 7 line isn't the only MTA project facing cost overruns thanks to rising costs and a glut of construction projects in the city.

The MTA also said Monday that work on a new Long Island Rail Road terminal at Grand Central is being re-bid, because the only bid on that project came in hundreds of millions of dollars over budget.

As for the 7 line, transit advocates say a 10th Avenue station is already needed.

"More exists now around the 10th Avenue station than around the Javits Center station. Are we saying that conventioneers are more important than our own residents? I hope we're not saying that,” said Andrew Albert of the NYC Transit Riders Council.

Still, despite internal opposition, the contract did win enough votes from an MTA board committee Monday to keep the project alive.

The contract goes to a vote by the full MTA Board on Wednesday. If it moves forward, the schedule calls for the 7 line extension to open in the year 2014.

— Bobby Cuza