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Schumer Confident About Hudson River Tunnel Project, Congestion Pricing
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Stephen Nessen
Published Jan 25, 2021
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Edwin J. Torres / NJ Governor's Office
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Jan 25, 2021
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The long-stalled Gateway Project, which at its core includes building a new train tunnel under the Hudson River between Penn Station and New Jersey, and rehabilitating the existing 110-year-old Sandy-damaged tunnel, is expected to move to the front of the infrastructure project line under the Biden administration, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer confidently declared on Monday.
“I’ve got plenty of money,” Schumer said on a conference call with advocates and reporters. “I’ve called [incoming Transportation] Secretary Buttigeig, I’ve spoken to President Biden to release this money ASAP. If we’re not making progress I’m going to call on all of you to help.”
Under the Trump administration, the project was stalled when the U.S. Department of Transportation refused to look at the environmental review, which was submitted in February, 2018. The project has languished in that phase since then.
The Senate, for its part, secured more than $1 billion in federal funding for the project back in 2015. The total cost of the Gateway project is estimated at $12 billion.
While the funding has been available and just waiting to be tapped into, the project has also required an administration willing to support it and usher it through the various federal review processes, which organizers of the Gateway Development Program believe they have now.
“We have an administration that is obviously more supportive and a president who in fact specifically mentioned the project in his infrastructure plan,” Stephen Sigmund, Chief of Public Outreach, with the Gateway Program Development Corporation, told Gothamist. “We’re certainly a lot more hopeful that with this administration we’ll do this the right way, which is to work with them in partnership to build this quickly. The wrong way to do it, obviously, is to wait for the current tunnel to deteriorate to a point where you have to start closing one or both of the tubes and do it under an emergency scenario.”
Amtrak, which owns the Hudson River tunnel, is undertaking what a spokesperson says is an “aggressive interim repair program” and says the tunnel is “sound.” But, “the systems inside are failing more frequently, as we’ve known would happen,” Amtrak spokesperson Craig Schulz wrote in an email. The agency is doing work to repair tracks and signals on nights and weekends -- temporary fixes Schulz said will buy about seven years until a new tunnel is built.
Currently, the Gateway Development Corporation hopes to have a new tunnel completed by 2028.
Because the environmental review was delayed for so many years, many aspects of the review must be updated, including surveying land that needs to be acquired in Secaucus, under the Palisades Parkway and Weehawken where a fan plant will be built, as well as pieces of land on Manhattan’s West Side.
The project was also downgraded during the Trump administration over an alleged inability to secure local funding, making it ineligible for federal grants. The Gateway Corporation disputed this and said New York and New Jersey have agreed to cover half the cost of the entire project. The Cuomo and Murphy administrations have long voiced support for Gateway.
During Monday’s morning’s conference call, Schumer said he spoke with Buttigeig about congestion pricing for Manhattan, and that he seemed “amenable to it.” The MTA is hoping the Biden administration will move forward with the plan to toll drivers in parts of Manhattan, which is also stuck in the environmental review process. The MTA isn’t even sure what type of environmental review it’s required to undertake.
"At the same time, we have been working internally to get as much done as possible so we can hit the ground running once we have a clear direction from the feds. That includes development of preliminary design," said Ken Lovett, senior advisor to the MTA Chairman and CEO Pat Foye.
While congestion pricing will shore up funds for the MTA to make capital repairs, the Gateway tunnel would ensure the Northeast has a functioning cross-river transit system, which more than 50,000 daily rush hour commuters (before COVID-19) rely on. If the tunnel fails, and it takes four years to build a new one, it could cost the national economy $16 billion, according to the Regional Plan Association.
The project could be a boost to the economy as well; it’s expected to create 72,000 jobs and create $19 billion in “economic activity,” according to the Gateway Development Corporation.
“Gateway is a project that will last 100 years, not a couple decades, and it will be really beneficial to the regional economy in the short term, bringing construction jobs to the region,” Brian Fritsch, manager of advocacy campaigns at the Regional Plan Association, told Gothamist.
Tagged
infrastructure
we the commuters
gateway
amtrak
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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