Dive Brief:
- Work on the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel project may come to a halt Feb. 6 if the Trump administration doesn’t release approved funds, which it put “under administrative review” on Oct. 1, 2025, the public authority charged with overseeing the project announced Tuesday.
- The project is building a new two-track tunnel and rehabilitating the existing 116-year-old North River Tunnel, which carries Amtrak intercity passenger trains and New Jersey Transit commuter trains. That tunnel was severely damaged during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
- “Since federal funding was paused in October, we have done everything in our power to keep construction moving forward as planned, but we cannot fund this work on credit indefinitely,” Gateway Development Commission CEO Thomas Prendergast said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Planning for the Hudson Tunnel project began in 2016 but went nowhere during the first Trump administration. In 2017, Trump killed an Obama-era funding agreement. Revived under President Joe Biden, the project “made significant progress building the most urgent passenger rail infrastructure project in the country,” Prendergast said.
The Hudson Tunnel project is part of the larger Gateway project, which includes replacing a 115-year-old bridge over the Hackensack River in New Jersey, replacing and renovating other rail bridges and adding track capacity along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor in the state.
When asked during his confirmation hearing if he would continue funding for these projects, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said, “I want to look at what funding has gone out, but I imagine those good projects that are underway, we would continue.”
The GDC notified contractors yesterday that funding will soon run out and asked them to wind down work at active construction sites. Over $1 billion has already been spent on the Hudson Tunnel project, using available funding sources and credit to keep the project moving forward, the GDC said in a news release. Halting construction “will result in the immediate loss of nearly 1,000 jobs,” it said.
A critical element of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and access for New Jersey Transit trains to and from Manhattan, the tunnels under the Hudson River carry nearly 200,000 passengers on an average weekday, according to Amtrak.
The Department of Transportation is also withholding funds for New York City’s Second Avenue Subway extension and for two major Chicago transit projects.
