Gateway tunnel project marks key milestone

Bloomberg News

After years of delays, workers and machines will begin digging the new tube for a $16 billion rail tunnel project under New York's Hudson River, a milestone for one of the biggest infrastructure developments in the U.S.

Governors from New York and New Jersey along with U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Cory Booker were on hand in North Bergen, New Jersey, on Monday morning, wearing hard hats and construction vests for a ceremonial launch of the boring machine that will begin digging in the coming days.

The Gateway tunnel will provide a new two-track link between New Jersey and Manhattan's Penn Station that will serve Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains. The project will also rehabilitate the existing, more-than-a-century-old tube that was severely damaged by storm water. The project has been years in the making; an earlier initiative to build a new tunnel was canceled in 2010 by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who said his state would have to take on any cost overruns.

The Gateway tunnel project regained federal funding earlier this year after the Trump administration had stopped it in 2025. The administration is still fighting against funding the development in court.

The existing, aging tunnel causes frequent delays and service cancellations in a region where citizens rely heavily on public transportation. About 200,000 daily passenger-rail riders use the tunnel to get in and out of Manhattan. 

"Our region is the beating heart of America, generating 20% of the nation's gross domestic product," New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said during the event. "And this 10-mile stretch of track is its main artery."

The new tunnel is set to open in 2035, and renovation of the existing tube is expected to be done by 2038.

The two tunnel boring machines each have cutterheads of 28 feet, 8 inches in diameter and weigh more than 1,680 tons. They will begin excavating one mile of hard, dry rock under the Palisades Cliffs in New Jersey, moving at about 30 feet each day. After about a year the heavy equipment will reach the access shaft in Weehawken, where two new boring machines will continue digging under the Hudson River.

"The machine works real hard," Schumer said during the event. "The rock is so hard it only moves 30 feet a day. That's why we can't let anybody stop it. We have to keep going and going and going till these machines reach the other side of the river."