Over the past 20 years, plans to dig new rail tunnels under the Hudson River — among the nation’s most ambitious and significant transportation projects — have repeatedly been halted by political wrangling.
So when the governors of New York and New Jersey agreed on Tuesday to equally share their share of the first phase of the $14 billion project – known as the Gateway – the announcement struck a familiar note.
After all, two different governors reached a similar deal in 2015, when Chris Christie was New Jersey’s general manager and Andrew M. Cuomo was still in charge at Albany. To say that progress on the tunnels has been slow since then would be an understatement.
With actual tunneling still at least over a year away, Tuesday’s announcement was a sign that Gateway could finally move forward.
Project planners are rushing to block federal funding as they have support from the Biden administration and Democratic leaders in Washington.
Before the federal government could agree to pay half or more of the cost, the two states had to agree on sharing the local share. The states did not say how they plan to pay for their shares, but New Jersey has previously said it will increase a portion of its share by issuing bonds.
“This deal is a major step forward for Gateway,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, Democratic Majority Leader. “I had told the governors of New York and New Jersey that unless they came to an agreement quickly, we would not be able to secure federal funds for the first round of funding.”
The Gateway project had seemed to be on the fast track to federal funding once before, under the Obama administration. But that momentum was lost when Donald J. Trump was elected in 2016. Mr. Trump refused to give Gateway the approvals and funding it needed during its four years in office.
Cost allocation has been a source of acrimony in the past. Mr Cuomo, a Democrat who resigned as governor last year after being accused of sexual harassment, resisted any obligation and said: ‘This is not my tunnel’.
He finally reached an agreement with Mr. Christie, a Republican who has always opposed a new trans-Hudson tunnel. In 2010, Mr. Christie halted construction of an earlier version, known as the ARC tunnel.
Although federal funding was complete, Mr. Christie abandoned the project, balking at the possibility that New Jersey would face potentially significant cost overruns.
A complication in reaching cost-sharing agreements has been that the primary users of the tunnels will be New Jersey residents who travel to New York for work. They ride the New Jersey Transit, whose trains were jam-packed before the pandemic. Transit planners expect even greater demand for trips across the Hudson in the coming decades. Still, New Jersey Transit carried far fewer passengers over the past two years as many workers stayed away from their offices.
Now New Jersey Governor Philip D. Murphy is cooperating with Mr. Cuomo’s successor, Kathy Hochul. Both Democrats, they have been strong Gateway supporters.
The sprawling Gateway project also includes the expansion of Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan and the replacement of a key railroad bridge in New Jersey that leads over the Hudson. Rather than wait for Gateway to get all the approvals it needs, Ms Hochul has pushed for Penn Station, which she called a ‘hole from hell’, to be renovated before rather than after completion. from Gateway.
Ms Hochul plans to let developers surround the station with super-tall towers in return for payments that would go towards the estimated $7 billion cost of its renovation. This plan has faced opposition from community leaders who wonder if there will be enough demand for office space in Midtown to pay for the renovation.
The formal agreement, a memorandum of understanding, that the governors signed Tuesday covers “Phase 1” of Gateway, which includes the Portal North Bridge and the Hudson Tunnels. They agreed that the states would equitably share the local share of the costs of these parts of the project.
“The Gateway Hudson Tunnel project is vital to the Northeast Corridor, and today’s announcement is a critical step in turning that vision into reality,” said Ms. Hochul..
Mr. Murphy said the formal agreement “marks a critical step toward completing the most significant transportation project not just in New Jersey, but in the entire United States.”
Construction of the bridge, which carries Northeast Corridor trains over the Hackensack River, is expected to begin this summer. The bridge, used by New Jersey Transit and Amtrak, is expected to cost about $1.9 billion, and governors have said the federal government will cover about 60% of that total.
That leaves each state contributing $386.2 million for the bridge, they said. New Jersey will be responsible for cost overruns caused by delays and rising construction costs, the memorandum says.
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