The largest federal transit grant in history, $6.8 billion to build the $16 billion Gateway Tunnel project between New Jersey and New York, has been approved by a federal agency, officials said.
The $6.8 billion full funding grant agreement between the Federal Transit Administration and Gateway Development Commission was confirmed Tuesday, and the federal government told Congress it would provide an additional $6.88 billion to the project, according to U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s office.
“After years of hard work, there’s nothing better than seeing federal investment at work to help our families with faster, safer, and more reliable commutes,” Gottheimer, D-5th Dist., said.” That’s why I fought so hard to help craft and pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, to claw back dollars to Jersey to build the Gateway Train Tunnel.”
News of the imminent grant award was first reported by the New York Times on Tuesday, with U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., saying the grant had been awarded.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy also confirmed it later Tuesday night, posting on X, “It’s official: We are moving full steam ahead with the largest and most consequential infrastructure project in the nation. This is a big win for commuters on both sides of the Hudson.”
“The full funding agreement for the $6.88 billion grant is the puzzle piece that completes $12 billion in federal funding for the Hudson Tunnel Project, the largest ever federal commitment to a mass transit project,” said Stephen Sigmund, a GDC spokesperson.
He thanked the project’s many supporters.
“Years of dedicated effort by these champions of the project brought us to this moment,” Sigmund said. “We look forward to signing the FFGA in the coming weeks and reaching the point of no turning back on the Hudson Tunnel Project.”
The grant allows the GDC to award construction contracts to start work on the tunnels either late this summer or in early fall, GDC officials said last month.
“I’ve fought tooth and nail to secure federal funding to build the Gateway Tunnel, which will bring our infrastructure into the 21st century and improve the quality of life and economic opportunities for millions of families in our region,” U.S. Rep Mikie Sherill, D-11th Dist., said in a statement.
The twin Gateway tunnels from the New Jersey side, known as the Palisade Tunnel, will extend one mile into the Hudson River. Construction will see two tunnel boring machines gnaw their way through rock to the New York side, said Kris Kolluri, Gateway Development Commission CEO, last month.
Kolluri said it was a goal to get tunnel construction substantially underway this year. Work is ongoing on two preparatory projects in North Bergen and Manhattan.
The project will build two new rail tunnels under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York and rehabilitating the existing 114-year-old tunnels. The project includes other infrastructure work from Secaucus Junction to Penn Station New York.
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.
In March 2023, $700 million was allocated in the federal budget by the Biden administration, in addition to $400 million announced by President Joe Biden in January 2023 and another $100 million (previously awarded) for a total of $1.2 billion for Gateway.
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,” Kolluri said at the commission’s Tuesday meeting. “We are on track to secure all the funding for the tunnel.”
The pending award ends a decade long odyssey for members of the New Jersey congressional delegation who initially fought for funding for the tunnel and related projects such as building a new $2 billion Portal North Bridge over the Hackensack River, which is now underway and more than 50% complete.
The Gateway Project was born in Feb. 2011 when Amtrak officials announced it after then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie canceled a predecessor project, the Access to the Region’s Core. or ARC, tunnel.
Christie cited concerns that state taxpayers could pay for cost overruns when the $9.8 billion tunnel hit a forecasted $14.7 billion estimate. That project also was derided as the “tunnel to Macy’s basement” by critics because it went to a proposed deep cavern station under 34th Street in Manhattan and not to nearby Penn Station.
ARC faced other hurdles because it was primarily funded by New Jersey and the Federal Transit Administration. Gateway spread funding out between the FTA, New York and New Jersey and Amtrak.
The congressional delegation had to fight again during the administration of then-President Donald Trump, whose Transportation Department gave the tunnel project a low ranking, stripping it of federal funding eligibility.
New Jersey and New York congressional delegation members battled the administration when Trump threatened to shut down the government in 2018 unless Gateway allocations were taken out of the federal government.
Trump’s opposition softened in March 2019 when he said he was “open minded” to funding it. In June 2020, after a dinner with Gov. Murphy, Trump tweeted he “gave authorization” to proceed with Portal Bridge funding.
The project picked up steam under Biden’s administration, with approval of a long dormant environmental report needed for funding, and including Gateway in the $2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law signed in Nov. 2021.
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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @CommutingLarry.
