On March 20, 1975, New York mayor Abraham Beame announced significant cutbacks to the plan. Construction of the Southeastern Queens extension was deferred until 1981, and the Long Island Rail Road extension through the lower level of the 63rd Street tunnel was canceled for the foreseeable future. The tunnel was 95% complete by January 1976, but later that year, the NYCTA announced that "it will take an extra five or six years—until 1987 or 1988—to complete the new Manhattan–Queens trunk subway line from Central Park to Jamaica via the new 63rd Street tunnel." The main cause of the delay was a proposed 5.8-mile "super express" bypass in Queens. The upper level was completed in 1976, but due to the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis, there was no funding to extend the tunnel in Queens east of the 21st Street–Queensbridge station.