Your mother, Chris Christie, Andrew Cuomo, and the steadily growing masses of New Jersey residents who commute to New York City under the Hudson River along two weather-worn tracks agree: an additional tunnel, pre-christened the Gateway Tunnel, is desperately needed. The overburdened existing tracks sustained considerable damage during Hurricane Sandy, and delays are frequent. Manhattan-bound trains have even been known to back up into New Jersey.
In September, Christie and Cuomo finally signed a joint letter, pledging to front $5 billion each towards the estimated $20 billion Gateway project, so long as the feds agreed to chip in on the remaining $10 billion. While the details of the agreement are still vague, both Amtrak and the Port Authority this week announced additional commitments of $35 million each to early-stage engineering work.
"This is intended to jumpstart the planning process, while funding is being developed," said Port Authority head Patrick Foye at a board meeting on Thursday.
Foye added that the Gateway Tunnel is likely going to be added to President Obama's Federal Infrastructure Projects Dashboard, which tends to speed up environmental reviews and permitting for large-scale infrastructure projects. Hopefully, considering that "a month's delay on the tunnel project is $80 million in additional costs."
The Port Authority also announced an agreement this week with Amtrak, NJ Transit and the U.S. Department of Transportation to sign a "Memorandum of Understanding," according to a Port Authority release. The purpose of the memo will be to set up an "interim framework" for the project's funding and construction. Working together, the various agencies and authorities said this week that they're going to apply for federal grants towards the Gateway Project (which includes a few infrastructure projects independent of the tunnel) "in the coming months."
The Port Authority also reiterated this week that the new Gateway Tunnel will allow for the closure and rehab of the existing 106-year-old tunnel. It's worth noting that construction takes time, on the scale of years and years. In 2015, Amtrak predicted optimistically that construction of the new tunnel could be complete by 2025, pushing the completion of the existing track's overhaul back to 2030. By 2040, the number of cross-Hudson commuters is expected to double.
