New phase of the Hudson River Gateway Tunnel project begins

Construction of the long-delayed rail tunnel under the Hudson River is about to accelerate as the project receives an additional $3.8 billion infusion of federal funding.

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader, will announce Washington’s latest grant on Friday, just before he and Pete Buttigieg, the Transportation Secretary, kick off work this month on the next phase of the government will announce. A $16.1 billion tunnel on Manhattan’s West Side known as the Gateway Project.

This new, early phase of the project includes the construction of a concrete enclosure through which trains can pass beneath the Hudson Yards section of Midtown Manhattan, between the riverfront and Pennsylvania Station.

On the New Jersey side of the river, also this month, highway redesign will begin so that tunnel digging can begin. Plans from the project’s sponsor, the Gateway Development Commission, call for two giant drills to drill their way through the cliff, under the river and into the bedrock of Manhattan.

That’s the path commuter trains will eventually follow, ascending through the concrete enclosure to the platforms of Penn Station.

Digging is expected to begin in 2025. The new tunnel is expected to open ten years later.

The plan to build a tunnel between the station and New Jersey has been kicked around like a political football for over fifteen years. But under the protective cover of the Biden administration, Mr. Schumer has set aside more than $10 billion in federal funds for the tunnel, which Mr. Buttigieg says is a national priority.

“With so much money already there, there is virtually no chance that it won’t be completed,” Mr. Schumer, the Democratic majority leader, said in a brief interview.

Metro commuters may remain dubious, given the history of the concept. Work on another Hudson River tunnel project had begun before Chris Christie, then governor of New Jersey and now Republican presidential candidate, put a stop to it 13 years ago.

Had that project gone ahead, a new tunnel would likely have been in use by now, relieving pressure on the existing tunnels, which are more than 110 years old.

That two-track pair of tubes is in such poor condition that trains in and out of the city are often delayed due to signal failures and problems with the overhead lines that supply power.

The addition of the two-track Gateway Tunnel would allow for the restoration of the old tunnels, but completion is expected to take more than a decade after years of delays during President Donald J. Trump’s term.

Gateway is a favorite project of Mr. Schumer, but has also received a lot of attention from the Biden administration.

Mr. Buttigieg toured the old tunnels two years ago and expressed support for the project to fill them. The president himself appeared in Midtown in January to announce that the federal government would provide $292 million for the concrete housing that is about to be built. He called it “the beginning of finally building a 21st century rail system.”

Nine months later, that money is put to work. But it’s a small portion of the federal grants Gateway has received.

Earlier this year, Mr. Schumer announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation would provide $6.88 billion for the project. The latest award increases the federal contribution to more than $11 billion, or about 70 percent of the estimated total cost of building the tunnel. New York and New Jersey have agreed to share the remaining costs.

“To get this to 70 percent is just really good news,” Mr. Schumer said. “Now New York State has more money to put into other transportation projects, and that includes New Jersey.”