Amtrak chairman Tony Cosica says he expects construction could start within six months for the projected $30 billion Gateway Tunnel, connecting New York and New Jersey.
However, the Trump Administration has yet to provide any financial commitments to fulfill commitments from the Obama administration to cover half of the project’s costs, Crain’s New York Business reports. Costs have increased from the original $24 million
Speaking at an Association for a Better New York breakfast, Coscia said that even if the government is no longer will to provide 50 percent of funding, he believes both New York and New Jersey along with the federal government is committed to making sure that the project is somehow funded in its entirety.
“What really matters is that the partners are fully committed to a plan of finance that fully funds the project,” he said.
The New York Times reports that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker, and Kirsten Gillibrand met with the president to discuss to discuss the future of the project but no decisions came from that meeting. “While the White House meeting was productive, it was inconclusive,” said Gov. Cuomo.
However, Coscia believes that the environmental review process should be complete by March 2018, and then construction will commence. “We’re operating on the basis that sometime shortly after March of 2018 we’re going to start construction on these tunnels,” he said.
