New York Construction Report staff writer
The Biden administration will advance a $6.88 billion grant to help build a the nwq railway tunnel between New York City and New Jersey, the largest ever federal transportation grant for a single project.
The $17.2 billion Hudson Tunnel Project includes repairing an existing tunnel and build a new one for passenger railroad Amtrak and state commuter lines between New Jersey and Manhattan.
“The project is a long-overdue investment to construct a new Hudson River Tunnel between New York and New Jersey and rehabilitate the 110-year old rail tunnel that carries 200,000 passenger trips per day on New Jersey Transit and Amtrak along the Northeast Corridor,” White House officials said in a statement.
The engineering phase of the project now begins with the Gateway Development Commission (GDC) starting utility relocations, real estate acquisitions, demolition, procurement of equipment and materials, and further design.
The overall Gateway Hudson River Tunnel project is a $17.18 billion investment that will improve resilience, reliability, and redundancy for New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) and the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) train service between New York and New Jersey. The project will reduce commute times for NJ Transit riders, enhance Amtrak reliability on the Northeast Corridor (NEC), and support the northeast regional economy. Amtrak expects the Hudson River Tunnel project will result in 72,000 direct and indirect jobs during construction with union partnerships for job training.
The existing North River Tunnel is over 100 years old and opened for service in 1910. Built to early 20th century standards, it is the only passenger rail tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey and facilitates more than 200,000 passenger trips per weekday on more than 450 Amtrak and NJ Transit trains servicing New York Penn Station. The existing tunnel has two tubes with one track each and has reached its full capacity of 24 trains per hour, causing bottlenecks and delays.
