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Mayor Bill de Blasio has called a halt to the troubled overhaul of the city’s 911 system. Like many city projects, the 911 revamp is millions of dollars over budget and years, in this case three, behind schedule. The city's 911 system has come under major scrutiny recently after delays in the response to two major fires. De Blasio said at a Monday press conference that First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris was told last week that the project, originally priced at $1.3 billion, is now surpassing the $2 billion mark, would cost another $100 million to finish, and would not be complete until 2018. The administration will now conduct a multi-agency review of what went wrong with the project and recommendations will be made in July. “There were a lot of warning signs over the years that weren’t heeded,” de Blasio said. “And it is now time to do a full review. And so we’ve brought this project to a dead stop. We are not going to run the risk of wasting more taxpayer dollars or continuing down a road that may not work. The cost overruns alone suggested that something is fundamentally wrong.”

 

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