US News

MTA A TECH WRECK

MTA bumbling has imperiled a massive post-Sept. 11 security project that’s months behind schedule and can’t be completed, a blockbuster federal lawsuit charges.

Lockheed Martin Corp., one of the nation’s leading defense contractors, is asking a federal judge to release it from a deal inked in 2005 to install high-tech surveillance equipment to protect subway riders from potential terror attacks.

The original contract was for $213 million, but the price was pushed up by add-ons requested by the MTA, which has already paid out $250 million for the unfinished work.

The suit comes as the MTA faces $621 million in additional debt for its day-to-day operations and is hoping Albany bails it out with increased funding.

Lockheed is claiming losses of $3 million a month while “key personnel” remain in place on the stalled project, and says it will file a separate suit to recover damages.

The company, which was supposed to be done with the job last August, blames the MTA for refusing to let it work inside a series of “under river tunnels,” including four beneath the East River linking Manhattan and Queens.

Lockheed’s Manhattan federal court filing says the contract guaranteed it access to one of the four East River tunnels for at least 55 hours each weekend.

“Currently, there is no schedule in place,” the suit says.

Lockheed also accuses the MTA of failing to clear out existing communication rooms for necessary upgrades.

The rooms are cluttered with other contractors’ equipment, while several “have water infiltration, the presence of which makes it unsafe to perform work due to the risk of electrocution,” and many “have inadequate electricity which is essential to perform the work.”

Perhaps worst of all, “none of the communication rooms have necessary network access, the absence of which makes it impossible for Lockheed Martin to install communication systems that will actually transmit information,” according to the suit.

Meanwhile, “additional work orders” that expanded the scope of the project and increased its cost now have the MTA scrambling to cut costs on its “over-ambitious” plans, a source inside the authority told The Post.

“It’s not nearly done. The cameras aren’t all in and motion detectors aren’t in. Lots of this is just languishing,” the source said.

An MTA spokesman said the transit agency will be able to use equipment that’s already been installed, but declined to comment further.

bruce.golding@nypost.com