Work on a $16 billion Hudson River rail-tunnel project that could ease congestion between New Jersey and Manhattan is set to come to a halt today following the Trump administration’s decision last year to freeze its funding.

The new tunnel, called Gateway, is one of the nation’s most ambitious infrastructure projects — and has been long wished for by commuters stewing on delayed trains. A prolonged shutdown could deal a serious setback to Gateway, which rail advocates say is sorely need to alleviate train delays and allow for maintenance on the current, aging tunnel.

The Trump administration has been in a standoff with state and local officials regarding Gateway since October, when it froze funding for the project over a new rule that bars contracting requirements based on race or sex. Earlier this month, the Gateway Development Commission, which is building the tunnel, sued the federal government in an effort to unlock more than $205 million. New York and New Jersey also sued the administration.

Construction of the tunnel, which Congress agreed to fund during the Biden administration, had been able to continue past the initial shutoff in October as the Gateway commission drew on money it still had in the bank. On Friday, if the flow of federal dollars isn’t restored, that money will be exhausted.

Tom Prendergast, the Gateway commission’s chief executive officer, said at a news conference on Thursday that work will pause on Friday without a funding deal. The project risks losing skilled construction workers who know the development inside and out but will need to seek work elsewhere, he said.

“Tomorrow, work on the largest, most urgent infrastructure project in America will come to a pause,” Prendergast said. “The Gateway Development Commission has expended every resource to prevent any interruption to the construction, but we’ve gone as far as we can go.”

Building a new tunnel under the Hudson River has been a political football for years. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie ended a previous tunnel initiative in 2010, irritating many commuters. And President Donald Trump wrangled with state leaders in his first term over the cost of Gateway.

Lengthy and unpredictable commutes have continued to be an emotional, pressing issue for many New Jerseyans. Service disruptions and broken-down trains have caused commuter frustration to boil over, increasing pressure on local leaders to do something to ease the strain.

New York and New Jersey are seeking a temporary restraining order that would force the administration to continue funding the project, with a hearing set for federal court in Manhattan on Friday afternoon.

“This, for our region, is all about jobs, it’s about families, it’s about the economy,” Mikie Sherrill, New Jersey’s current governor, said Wednesday at a news conference in Newark. “Unfortunately for President Trump, it’s just about politics.”

Terminating Gateway or delaying it significantly would create extensive disruption for travelers along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, which runs from Washington through New York and on to Boston. Former Amtrak chief Joseph Boardman warned in 2014 that the existing tunnel, which first opened in 1910, had about 20 years left before it would need to be partially closed for rehabilitation.

Shutting down part of the existing tunnel would slash train service between New York and Washington by half and increase commuting times for 245,000 drivers in the New York City region, according to a 2019 Regional Plan Association report. Nearly 140,000 drivers would see their commutes extended by at least 30 minutes. Only six trains would be able to move through the tunnel every hour, down from 24.

Thousands of regular NJ Transit riders would be forced to turn to cars, buses, ferries or the PATH train, which connects northeastern New Jersey to Manhattan. Anyone trying to cross the Hudson or just get around northern New Jersey would be affected, according to Tom Wright, president and chief executive officer of the RPA, which promotes economic health in the New York City area.

“All of those trips are going to become longer, more difficult, more painful because of the hit to the system” if the existing tunnel wasn’t fully operational, Wright said.

Spending Freeze
While commuters won’t be affected if work stops Friday on the new Gateway tunnel, it would put 1,000 construction employees out of work and threaten 95,000 other jobs linked to the project, while risking almost $20 billion in related economic activity, Gateway has estimated.

“The people that are going to get hurt the most are these families, these union workers and construction workers who are potentially going to lose their jobs in a matter of hours, all the businesses that are going to struggle from this,” New Jersey Democratic Senator Andy Kim said in an interview. “That’s who’s losing if this continues to be a political cudgel that the president’s trying to use.”

Nearly $2 billion has already been spent on the project, according to Gateway’s legal complaint. If work is paused, a custom-built boring machine that arrived last month from Germany and was set to begin digging this spring will start collecting dust.

“You not only lose time, but you are spending money on things you didn’t anticipate to spend money on,” Prendergast told reporters last week.

Overall, the Trump administration halted about $18 billion in payments tied to US transit infrastructure projects in areas with Democratic leaders. Transit officials have said they have shown the federal government that they are compliant with the new rules.

“Gateway is fully funded, fully permitted, and desperately needed to modernize our dilapidated and damaged rail tunnels,” Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat and Senate Minority Leader, said in a statement. “For the good of New York, New Jersey, our economy, and union workers, the only thing to do is for President Trump to release the legally-approved funds now.”

Other major urban transportation projects are also at risk without the funds. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs New York City’s transit system, needs federal money by March for a tunneling contract that will extend the Second Avenue subway to Harlem. The MTA said it has been waiting on $50 million. The Chicago Transit Authority is warning potential investors in its bond sale that the federal pause could result in increased costs or delays on the extension of its Red Line and modernization work on its Red and Purple lines, according to bond documents.

About 450 trains move through the existing Hudson River tunnel each day, with two tracks serving trains going in opposite directions. Shutting down one track for repairs or to remove a disabled train forces all trains to operate on a single track. Major disruptions are common.

Construction of the new two-track Gateway tunnel is expected to be done in 2035, with rehabilitation of the existing tunnel completed by 2038. That would give the region a total of four tracks, increase train capacity and improve on-time performance for 200,000 daily riders, according to Gateway.

Without the new tunnel, Amtrak will be forced to operate on a single track once it begins rehabilitating the other passageway. That could cost the national economy an estimated $16 billion over four years and property values in New Jersey could drop by as much as $22 billion, according to the RPA report.

Added Costs
Public officials, businesses and transit advocates in the region have been looking for ways to increase train capacity between New Jersey and New York since the 1990s.

A work stoppage would mean almost $20 million a month in additional costs for Gateway to demobilize work crews, secure construction sites and move and store heavy equipment, among other expenses, according to the commission’s complaint. Those costs would deplete the project’s remaining reserves, Gateway said.

Even if the US government were to release the money, the withholding of funds and Gateway’s need to seek legal action will cost the project, RPA’s Wright said. Stopping work is an expense for contractors, too, and they will need to factor in the risk of federal money not arriving on time, he said.

“There’s really no argument that we don’t need to build Gateway,” Wright said. “All this is doing is slowing it down and making it cost more.”

{Matzav.com}