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Ghost stairs and pig bones sit in the way of new NYC train tunnel
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Jul 11, 2025
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Stephen Nessen
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Jul 11, 2025
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This column originally appeared in On The Way, a weekly newsletter covering everything you need to know about NYC-area transportation.
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Ghosts of Manhattan’s past are haunting — and maybe slowing down — the Gateway Program, a $16 billion project to build new rail tunnels beneath the Hudson River that has been decades in the making.
Before crews can start digging the 2.4-mile connection between Penn Station and New Jersey, workers will have to remove the detritus of the West Side’s wild industrial past.
Subsurface scans of the ground between 11th and 12th avenues and 29th and 30th streets conducted during the project’s planning phase revealed unexpected bits of history buried in the landfill that makes up that section of Manhattan, Gateway officials shared in a tour of the sprawling bi-state job site this week.
The scans identified a mysterious underground two-story staircase, whose origin remains unknown to Gateway engineers. They also found heaps of pig bones, likely leftover from a bygone era when the Meatpacking District lived up to its name. Besides the bygone stairway to hog heaven, the scans also revealed the foundation of what was once a soap factory.
They’re just some of the obstacles crews face building the train tunnel between New York and New Jersey, a task last completed 115 years ago.
They’ll also have to burrow around a byzantine network of utility lines, as well as supports from an elevated highway torn down decades ago.
If you go digging for gold on the West Side, don't be surprised if you come across a pile of old pig bones.
Stephen Nessen
“They'll excavate the material. They'll remove obstructions,” said Benjamin Engle, a senior program manager for Gateway. He said those materials include “former steel foundations of the West Side Highway that were abandoned in place when they tore the highway down.”
There are further complications that past tunnel builders didn’t have to contend with. Unlike Manhattan’s bedrock, the landfill on the West Side cannot be drilled. As a result, crews will pump a saltwater mixture called “cold brine” into the ground to solidify it and make it easier to dig through.
“This is all man-made land, so it's really important that we do the ground freezing because it's very soft soils, and it makes it very difficult for the tunnel boring machine to excavate through these poor conditions,” Engle said.
Engle compared digging through the landfill to building a sand castle at the beach. Once the sand gets wet, it hardens, making it easier to dig out.
The new tubes, which will serve NJ Transit and Amtrak trains, aren’t expected to open for service until 2035. The project will then move to rehabilitate the existing, aging Hudson River train tunnels, with a scheduled completion date of 2038.
NYC transportation news this week
Congestion pricing, six months in. New data suggests it’s going well so far: 67,000 fewer vehicles are entering Lower Manhattan each day, traffic crashes are down and mass transit ridership is up across the board.
Unprotecting the Bedford Avenue bike lane. A judge ruled Wednesday that Mayor Eric Adams can proceed with removing a protected bike lane through a section of Williamsburg, where it faced opposition from the local Hasidic community.
Minor headache for West Side joggers and cyclists. A stretch of the Hudson River Greenway around West 30th Street is going to get disrupted for the next two years due to construction on the new Gateway tunnel under the river.
The Queens bus network redesign is underway. Construction started this week on new bus lanes on Hillside Avenue with the goal of speeding up service for 22 routes in total.
Hot 1s. According to MTA data, car 2449 on the 1 line has received the most complaints about broken air conditioning of any train car in the subway system. If you encounter it in the wild, let [email protected] know!
Have a question for us? Use this form to submit yours and we may answer it in a future newsletter!
Curious Commuter questions are exclusive for On The Way newsletter subscribers. Sign up for free here.
Question from Dean in Queens
When can OMNY incorporate 30-day passes?
Answer
The MTA is fully transitioning to its OMNY system in the fall, which spells the end of MetroCards. The yellow-and-blue cards have for decades offered a 30-day unlimited pass that allowed New Yorkers unlimited swipes into the subway and bus system. But the MTA has not said whether or not it would offer the 30-day pass through OMNY. It argues that unused cash on MetroCards leaves millions of dollars on the table every year, and that OMNY is more efficient, allowing riders to pay as they go. As it stands, $34 is the maximum amount of money you’ll pay in a seven-day period using OMNY, which is the same price as a weekly unlimited MetroCard. A 30-day MetroCard currently sells for $132. While we don’t know if OMNY will ever incorporate a monthly pass, transit officials have teased other potential bonuses with OMNY in the future.
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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
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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