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Gateway tunnel money remains frozen while feds appeal court order
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Feb 9, 2026
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Stephen Nessen / Gothamist
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Feb 9, 2026
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Funding for the Gateway project remained in limbo on Monday, three days after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to release the money earmarked for the $16 billion Hudson River tunnel project.
The Trump administration appealed the court ruling on Monday and U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas allowed the feds to hold off on releasing the money until at least Thursday while the case is considered by a federal appeals court.
The administration hasn’t sent any funds for the project since October and the lawsuit from New York and New Jersey says the U.S. Department of Transportation owes more than $200 million.
Construction at the project’s five job sites on both sides of the Hudson River halted on Friday and officials said work cannot continue until the funding is restored. Project leaders said nearly 1,000 workers were laid off due to the freeze.
Dozens of construction workers, several of whom were out of a job, rallied at the construction site in North Bergen on Monday morning to call on Trump to unfreeze the funds.
“ I just want to do two things. I want to feed my family and build something monumental like this tunnel,” said Mike Hellstrom III, 26, a construction worker who was laid off.
Hellstrom said he had hoped to spend the next decade working on Gateway. The project isn’t expected to be completed until 2035.
“This is my Freedom Tower. This is the big one for me,” he said.
Brent Booker, the general president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, who represents many of the workers on Gateway, said he has no patience for Trump’s haggling over Gateway funds.
Last week, Gothamist reported Trump’s team offered to unfreeze the funding if Democrats in Congress agreed to rename Penn Station and Dulles Airport after the president.
“There is no negotiation. He could name whatever he wants, I don't care what he calls his tunnel. I care about our health care. I care about our pension. I care about our family sustaining wages,” Booker said. “ We're going show him what picking a fight with the American worker looks like.”
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer joined the rally, donning a hard hat and pumping his fist. He warned Trump he’s likely to lose blue collar workers’ votes over this move.
“ Donald Trump said he wants to cut off the funds to Gateway. We say no way. No way. No effing way. No effing way,” Schumer said.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration in October announced they would withhold funding for the project — which is one of the biggest construction efforts in the country — following the federal government shutdown. The U.S. Department of Transportation wrote in a notice it was reviewing the project’s requirements for a certain percentage of the work to go do minority- and women-owned businesses.
Lawyers for New York and New Jersey wrote in a court filing on Monday that the feds then claimed the project violated other regulations, which Gateway officials addressed. And last month, a White House spokesperson indicated the funding would not be released unless Schumer and other Democrats in Congress agreed to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security amid Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
“Whatever its shifting stated reasons, federal officials publicly confirmed that DOT had suspended funding to punish New York officials for opposing presidential demands,” lawyers from New York and New Jersey wrote in Monday’s court filing.
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Politics
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new york city
transportation
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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