President Donald Trump has put an end to funding for New York City’s $16bn (£13bn) Gateway Development Programme which proposed a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River but those who understand the need for the tunnel are fighting on.
Also known as the Hudson Tunnel project, the scheme was “terminated” by Trump on Wednesday, 15 October. The move was part of a government shutdown that has seen mass layoffs and cancellations of other programmes under the current administration.
The twin tunnels proposed for the Hudson River Tunnel would be used by rail and would link Secaucus Station in New Jersey to Penn Station in Manhattan.
This new rail route would be close to the existing North River Tunnel, which was built in 1910 but suffered damage during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. As well as building the new tunnels, work will be done to rehabilitate the existing North River Tunnel.
There are currently 450 trains that use the North River Tunnel everyday so taking it out of action for repairs is impossible.
Trump’s move has put a hold on future funding to the Hudson Tunnel project even with the massive amount of work that has been taking place on the scheme over the past couple of years.
This announcement was followed by the news that the manufacture of the tunnel boring machines (TBMs) that will excavate the first 1.6km of the new rail tunnel was approaching completion in August.
The project seemed like it was on rocky ground even before Trump’s announcement when at the start of October, Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought discussed a stop to reimbursements for the Hudson Tunnel Project and the Second Avenue Subway projects. The same day, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) released a statement discussing a review of the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise programme it was conducting. This review froze project reimbursements until it was complete.
Instigated by US transportation secretary Sean Duffy, he said earlier this week the process of the review was said to be further slowed by the current federal government shutdown.
“We’re in the process of reviewing those projects. The problem is our staff has been furloughed and we have one person doing these reviews,” he said at a press conference in Queens.
Duffy’s comments came following a letter sent by New Jersey congressional delegates which demanded President Trump retract his statements regarding the termination of the project and carry through with the funding agreements made in 2024.
Even with the current hold on funding, developer of the project Gateway Development Commission (GDC) chief executive officer Thomas Prendergast said the team were still working to keep it on track.
“GDC has received notification from Federal Transit Administration (FTA) regarding a pause in disbursements for the Hudson Tunnel Project,” he said.
“GDC complies with all federal laws and regulations and will continue to do so throughout the project.
“We look forward to continuing our productive relationship with the administration, FTA, Federal Railroad Administration and the US Department of Transportation.
“In the meantime, we remain focused on keeping the project on scope, schedule, and budget.”
GDC spokesperson further confirmed the programme was working with Duffy to move forward with the project.
He said: “We appreciate our productive relationship with secretary Duffy and other senior leaders at US DOT and will continue to comply with all federal laws and regulations.”
The project unfortunately faced a further setback on Thursday, 23 October, when the GDC revealed a worker had suffered a fatal injury on the Hudson Yards Concrete Casing (HYCC-3) section of the project.
The deceased worker was an employee of the New York Concrete Corporation. Since the incident all work was suspended on the HYCC-3 site while the incident is under investigation.
Current progress
As well as the HYCC-3 major construction work has begun on various parts of the whole Gateway project, which is separated into ten different elements.
One of the key elements of the project that is underway is the Hudson River Ground Stabilisation project. The purpose of this part of the scheme is to stabilise the riverbed of the Hudson River on the Manhattan side so that the TBMS can bore the proposed tunnels effectively.
Due to the riverbed in the shallow area near Manhattan being composed of soft silt, not sufficiently stable for large scale tunnelling beneath, the ground stabilisation scheme has been injecting grout and creating columns of reinforced soil/mixture beneath the riverbed to establish a more stable “block of reinforced earth”.
This was scheduled for completion in 2027.
The US DOT was contacted for comment.
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