By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) – The commission overseeing the $16 billion New York Hudson Tunnel Project said it needs funding certainty from President Donald Trump’s administration to fully resume construction after a funding freeze added millions of dollars to the project’s cost.
The Hudson Tunnel Project aims to build a new commuter rail tunnel connecting Manhattan and New Jersey and repair storm damage to a century-old tunnel used by more than 200,000 travelers and 425 trains daily. Last week, the administration completed a release of $235.7 million after withholding funding since Oct. 1 after a federal judge ordered payment and a U.S. appeals court refused to halt it.
The project is due another $19 million by March 2 but given questions about whether the U.S. Transportation Department will make additional payments, only limited construction is resuming this week, said the Gateway Development Corporation in a court filing in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
The commission, created by New York and New Jersey to oversee the project, said it has deferred the award of major contracts necessary to resume full construction. The project has incurred millions of dollars in extra costs, including for additional security at work sites during the project shutdown that began on February 6 and put 1,000 workers out of work.
The U.S. Department of Transportation did not immediately comment.
The project was allocated about $15 billion in federal support under former President Joe Biden, in signed funding agreements. Nearly $2 billion has been spent so far.
The commission needs assurances about federal funding agreements or it will be “forced to proceed without any certainty as to its funding. That is an untenable situation for a massive public works project, the many hundreds of workers it employs, and the public that badly needs this transportation infrastructure.”
Republican President Donald Trump offered last month to unfreeze the funds, a source said, in return for support from Democrats to rename Washington Dulles Airport and New York’s Penn Station after him. Democrats strongly criticized the suggestion.
The existing Hudson Tunnel, heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, needs frequent emergency repairs that disrupt travel on the nation’s most heavily used passenger rail line.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul and David Gregorio)
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