.png)
3 weeks ago
3
Photo by Scott Blair/ENR
A 600-ft cofferdam enables crews to place lightweight concrete along a section of the Hudson riverbed for safe passage of future TBMs.
Photo by Scott Blair/ENR
While work on the Gateway Development Commission’s $16-billion Hudson Tunnel Project between New Jersey and New York is underway on both sides of the river, its status is unclear after President Donald Trump declared the project is “terminated” during a White House event Oct. 15.
On the first day of the current government shutdown, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation announced that it was withholding $18 billion in funding for the tunnel project and the Second Avenue subway extension while it conducts a review of disadvantaged business enterprise hiring practices in light of a new interim final rule it issued on its DBE program.
DOT’s announcement left open the possibility that federal dollars could flow to the projects again following the review. But Trump said the White House is terminating programs “on a permanent basis.”
“It’s thousands of people and it’s billions of dollars,” Trump said. “We’re getting rid of a lot of things that we never wanted.”
Representatives from Gateway declined to comment. The agency was formed by New York and New Jersey to lead infrastructure projects on a section of the Northeast Corridor between Newark, N.J., and Penn Station in Manhattan, a particularly busy stretch of the passenger rail line.
DOT representatives did not immediately respond to inquiries seeking clarification on the project’s funding and status.
The Hudson Tunnel Project had been advancing with a planned 70-30 federal-local funding split. Last year, Gateway signed an agreement with the Federal Transit Administration for a $6.9-billion capital investment grant and $4.1 billion in low-interest loans, on top of a previously awarded $3.8-billion Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail grant and $1 billion from Amtrak.
The reasoning for the termination appeared to be entirely political, rather than any issue with the project itself, as Trump referenced Republicans’ disagreements with Democrats and the government shutdown.
“The Gateway Program is a critical economic engine: not just for New York, not just for the Northeast Corridor, but for the entire nation,” said Carlo Scussura, president and CEO of the New York Building Congress, in a statement. “Yet it continues to be played as a political football while real jobs—thousands of them—are on the line. As is the transportation future of an entire region.”
Trump said that Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, is terminating “tremendous numbers of Democrat projects” and also referenced Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) efforts to fund the project.
“Tell him it’s terminated,” Trump repeated.
In a statement, Schumer called the move “petty revenge politics that would screw hundreds of thousands of New York and New Jersey commuters, choke off our economy, and kill good-paying jobs.”
It was also unclear from the president’s comments whether his administration would also be moving to terminate the Second Avenue subway project, and possibly also a pair of Chicago transit projects that DOT also said it was reviewing in relation to the DBE rule.
The New York projects together involve 15,000 union jobs, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said during an interview on MSNBC. She indicated the state may sue to protect the funding.
“We’ll always win in court,” Hochul said.
The Hudson Tunnel Project covers 9 miles of track, including 2.8 miles of two-tube tunnel with a 28-ft exterior dia. between Manhattan and North Bergen, N.J. Its scope includes related work like construction of a concrete casing at Hudson Yards and stabilization of a portion of the riverbed, and repairs to the 115-year-old North River Tunnel.
During the shutdown, the Trump administration has also said it is canceling hundreds of Dept. of Energy grants totaling $7.6 billion together, and has moved to fire thousands of federal workers, in addition to the funding freezes for transit projects in New York and Chicago.
The Senate has been stalled with two versions of a stopgap spending bill, one favored by Republicans that has already passed the House, and one sponsored by Democrats that would extend expiring health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
The Republican bill again failed to reach the needed three-fifths threshold on Oct. 16.
James Leggate is an online news editor at ENR. He has reported on a variety of issues for more than 10 years and his work has contributed to several regional Associated Press Media Editors and Murrow award wins.
