It’s practically a miracle.
The MTA is about $25 million under budget on the stunning glass-dome entrance — and overhaul — of the 96th Street station on the 1-2-3 line, officials said yesterday after opening the facility.
The rehab also eliminates one of the busy Upper West Side station’s most annoying hassles — the need to walk under the tracks in a small, dingy tunnel and come back up another set of stairs to reach either platform.
“People had to go down to come up in a very tight, congested space,” said Natale Barranco, whose Urbahn Architects laid out the plans for the $98 million project, which had been budgeted at about $123 million.
Straphangers who took the initial walk through the massive glass structure in the middle of Broadway noted the improvements.
“I noticed there’s a lot more space, and I didn’t have to go into the dripping underpass,” said David Eisenbach, 37.
