Waiting on the NY Department of Transportation

We're making headway with the bidders but I still can't understand why it costs the state of New York $400,000 to 'plan and design' 160 additional parking spots to a 5 year-old park and ride. And were any outside firms paid to pitch in?

I have been told by one of the bidding firms owners that it is typical for planning and designing to eat up about a tenth of a government project's budget, at least in New York.

I sent the following questions below to NY DOT's press officer on July 28, yesterday. They were essentially the same questions I'd asked weeks ago. I also asked to interview some of the project's planners and he said that would happen, but nothing so far.

Here are the questions we want answered taxpayers:

1.) How many people were involved in planning and designing this lot and over what period of time? What would be the estimated number of hours spent to bill $400k?

2) Were any outside design/planning firms hired? Who were they?

3) What needs to be done to plan and design 160 open-air parking spots?

4) What were some of the obstacles to getting this project through? (You'd mentioned a bird reserve nearby)

We just want to know where the money is going.