On Monday, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the awarding of $11 billion in grants and financing to support the Hudson River Tunnel between New York and New Jersey.
One of the largest infrastructure projects in American history, the Hudson River Tunnel project is just one area of focus the Biden-Harris Administration has identified as part of a $66 billion in investment in passenger rail.
In New York, USDOT officials signed a Full Funding Grant Agreement through the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program that will allow the FTA to provide $6.9 billion to the project to help build the tunnel and rehabilitate the existing North River Tunnel. At the same time, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg approved three Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) loans worth $4.1 billion that will provide financing at below-market interest rates through the department’s Build America Bureau.
“For decades, Americans watched one of the most heavily-used train tunnels in the hemisphere deteriorate and become a bottleneck that affected travelers from New England to the Mid-Atlantic and beyond,” Buttigieg said. “Today, President Biden is making good on his promise to fix that and build the Hudson Tunnel Project. Using funds from the President’s infrastructure law, we are building a new tunnel that improves train travel for millions of Americans and revitalizes a rail corridor that is essential to so much of the nation’s economy.”
The Hudson River Tunnel Project encompasses a variety of smaller components, including a new double-track tunnel between Bergen Palisades in New Jersey and Manhattan in New York City, rehabilitation of the North River Tunnel damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and creating a concrete casing at Hudson Yards that will connect the new tunnel to New York’s Penn Station.
“Today marks a significant milestone on the path to ensuring the success of our nation’s most vital infrastructure project,” New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said. “Thanks to the leadership of our partners, both in Congress and across the Hudson, our federal government will be covering over 70 percent of the total cost of the Gateway Tunnel Project. As the main artery of our nation’s economy continues to be pushed to its limits, we are now one step closer to transforming the 100-year-old infrastructure under the Hudson River. New Jersey thanks the Biden-Harris Administration for delivering this critical investment so that our region’s transportation system will be able to support a new century of American leadership.”
The new tunnel and rehabilitated old tunnel are expected to be completed by 2038, and will provide four modern rail tunnels for Amtrak and NJ Transit trains.
Other sources of USDOT support for the project include $3.8 billion from the Federal Railroad Administration’s Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Program for the Northeast Corridor Program; $1 billion from Amtrak’s annual grant funding; $25 million from the U.S. DOT Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program for the Tonnelle Avenue Bridge Project; and $292.1 million from the USDOT 2022 MEGA Grant Program for the Hudson Yard Concrete Casing Phase 3 project.
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