The $16 billion Gateway Tunnel project is a decision away from receiving a record-setting $6.8 billion federal grant.
The Gateway Development Commission, the bi state agency overseeing design and building of the tunnel, submitted the final documents needed for the Federal Transit Administration to decide on awarding the grant.
“On March 30, we submitted the last documents to the FTA for us to reach a full-funding grant agreement,” Kris Kolluri, Gateway Development Commission CEO, said at the commission’s Tuesday meeting. “We are on track to secure all the funding for the tunnel.”
A decision is expected in June, he said. If awarded, it would be the largest federal transportation grant in history. The project includes building two new rail tunnels under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York and rehabilitate the existing 114-year-old tunnels. The project includes other infrastructure work from Secaucus Junction to Penn Station New York.
The application and documentation process has taken over two years and involved 2,600 documents, six management plans and 43 critical agreements, Kolluri said.
The commission approved the last of those documents Tuesday, an independent financial audit of the commission’s first full year in business, which received a “clean” opinion with no adverse findings from Deloitte and Touche, he said.
Both the Federal Transit Administration full funding grant agreement and low cost infrastructure loans that New Jersey and New York have applied for the fund the states share of the project are dependent on “smooth financial operation” of the commission, said Patrick McCoy, who was named permanent chief financial officer on Tuesday.
Gateway took on greater urgency when a 2014 engineering report commissioned by Amtrak warned of the need to rehabilitate the existing tunnels due to deterioration from river water driven by Hurricane Sandy into the tunnels. Train capacity would becut by 75% if one tunnel is shut down for a year to rehabilitate, Amtrak officials said
The Gateway Hudson River Tunnel is among those projects recommended for fundingfrom the Biden administration’s Capital Investment Grant New Starts program announced by federal transportation officials in March.
Last March, $700 million was allocated in the federal budget by the Biden administration, in addition to $400 million announced by Biden in January 2023 and another $100 million (previously awarded) for a total of $1.2 billion for Gateway.
Work on two early parts of the project, one in New Jersey and One in New York, are proceeding with “no issue to report on either,” Kolluri said.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @CommutingLarry
