Two weeks after news broke on the New York State Thruway Authority’s proposed toll hike for some large commercial vehicles, Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the authority’s credit outlook from stable to negative.

While a factor in S&P’s revision was uncertainty surrounding the planned 45% toll increase, the Thruway Authority’s plan (or lack thereof) for financing the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement also played a part.

“Uncertainty related to NYSTA’s plan of finance and long-term tolling strategy related to the replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge and ongoing capital needs also contributed to the outlook revision,” said S&P credit analyst Joseph Pezzimenti in a release.

Meanwhile, construction trades councils in Rockland and Westchester have voted down a project labor agreement (PLA), pertaining to the new Tappan Zee Bridge. According to Crain’s, the agreement “would’ve eased union wage and work rules.”

Ross Pepe, president of the Construction Industry Council of Westchester and the Hudson Valley, has previously said that a PLA is necessary to make “a project of this size and type” effective, because “[the project is] going to require a lot of manpower, a lot of coordination and working of schedules and shifts.”

The state and lobbying groups have repeatedly said that fast-tracking the bridge project is essential to bringing jobs to the region. But, with the vote down of the PLA by the construction trades, will local trade councils still be vying for these jobs?

Crain’s notes that the labor vote’s impact on the project timeline is still unclear.

The Thruway Authority downgrade and labor negotiation troubles add to the huge uncertainties that have undermined the project to this point. For example, the estimated $5.2 billion cost of the project has never been explained in detail, nor has the state clarified its questionable cost estimates for bus rapid transit (BRT) on the bridge. Originally planned as the most cost-effective way to deal with congestion, the state’s cost estimate for BRT has expanded fivefold. This is a big problem, because according to previous NYSDOT documents, transit is the only way to solve the congestion problem on the bridge and in the corridor.

The state has repeatedly requested extensions on Tri-State’s Freedom of Information Law requests for documentation of its cost estimates. In a recent article that described the project’s transparency issues, the Thruway Authority told the Journal-News that “transparency and community engagement is one of our top priorities in our ongoing process for building a new bridge.” New York State has told Tri-State that it will deliver the requested project documents by June 28—the comment period on the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement ended on March 30.

Tri-State and its allies continue to advocate for BRT as the most cost-effective way of adding long-term congestion relief in the corridor. Amid estimates that the Tappan Zee’s cost could bring car tolls as high as $30—to say nothing of the additional $14.75 five-axle trucks would pay to cross the bridge if the 45% toll hike is passed—and serious concerns about the Thruway Authority’s finances, there is still no financing plan for the bridge.

The fast-tracked Tappan Zee Bridge process was intended to expedite construction but these issues, coupled with concerns raised by transportation and environmental groups, threaten to slow the project down.