Gateway tunnel project reaches key milestone with $3.8 billion funding boost

Politicians vowed that work would soon begin on the long-stalled and historically expensive project to build a second tunnel under the Hudson River for Amtrak and NJ Transit on Friday, as New York Sen. Chuck Schumer announced an additional $3.8 billion in federal funding for the project.

“It's all systems go," Schumer said, speaking near 30th Street at the West Side Yard, where the work is set to happen. "There's no turning back."

The Gateway Project, which Schumer called the “nation’s largest public works project," will build a new train tunnel and repair an existing tube damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

The project's total estimated cost is $16 billion, up from an estimated $13 billion in 2020. Schumer said 70% of the project is funded, including through the bipartisan infrastructure legislation signed by President Joe Biden in 2021.

The additional federal funds mean New York and New Jersey’s financial contributions will be less than expected. The two states had agreed to each cover a quarter of the project's costs.

“The fact that the state of New York and the state of New Jersey will now see a lowered financial burden is something that we focused on as a singular priority in this project,” said Kris Kolluri, CEO of the Gateway Development Commission, which is overseeing the project.

Kolluri couldn’t confirm exactly how much the two states will now be expected to pay.

“It's been a long journey," said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. "Four presidents, five governors have all said they'd get this done."

"Well, guess what?" she continued. "You have the governors and the president and the leadership in Washington that are saying 'no more talk.' This is the day the shovels go in the ground.”

While Hochul and others touted the start of construction on the project, the exact date shovels will go in the ground was unclear. Kolluri promised work would begin before the end of the year.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy did not speak at Friday's event. His state is currently suing the MTA over congestion pricing.

Work on Gateway will begin on the New York side of the Hudson River, with construction of a concrete casing that will hold the tunnel. It will be built underground on the west side of Manhattan at 30th Street, where the High Line ends.

On the New Jersey side, crews will build a bridge for traffic on Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen. The bridge will allow for boring machines to begin digging the tunnel below.

Those projects will be funded with the $6.8 billion grant federal officials awarded to Gateway in July. The additional funds announced Friday will be spent on “track, signals and systems and the guts of Gateway,” Schumer noted in a press release.

Gateway is expected to create 72,000 jobs and generate $19 billion in economic activity, according to officials. Schumer said the project will funnel “mind-boggling dollars into the New York, New Jersey and national economies.”

The new tunnel is expected to be completed in 2035, while the existing tunnel is expected to be repaired in 2038. The work will affect the daily commutes of an estimated 200,000 people.

But the tunnel project will not increase the number of trains at New York's Penn Station. For that to happen, the station must expand to make room for more platforms and trains — and that requires knocking down a swath of buildings south of 31st Street known as Block 780.

The MTA is still working on its designs for renovating the current Penn Station. It’s unclear how this aspect of the project will be completed.

William Otterson has lived on the block for 46 years and says he doesn’t want to lose his home.

“I don't have any other place to go,” he told Gothamist.

Otterson said he feared that if Amtrak or the state used eminent domain to seize his home he wouldn’t get enough money to find a new place to live.

“I'll be out on the street,” he said.