Heat’s on feds for Gateway $
THE CRUCIAL funding for a critical rail project under the Hudson River faces uncertainty in Washington, as local officials plan to vote Thursday to pump more money into the project.
The board of the Port Authority is voting to spend another $44 million to keep the momentum going on the Gateway Project, which consists of a new bridge in New Jersey and a new tunnel beneath the Hudson River.
Backers of the project insist the federal government needs to kick in money for Gateway to become a reality.
“The problem is, it’s such a large project and it’s expensive and it covers so much ground,” said Tom Wright, president of the Regional Plan Association. “It’s really hard to figure out how you . . . do this without a substantial federal share.”
Yet the Trump administration this week put out an infrastructure plan that laid out just $200 billion in direct spending over 10 years, with $50 billion of that set aside for the country’s rural areas. The plan essentially tells states and cities to raise money for infrastructure projects through taxes and fees.
Under the Gateway project, it’ll cost $13 billion for the Hudson River tunnel and $1.6 billion to build a bridge over the Hackensack River in New Jersey.
“Given the administration’s recent budget and infrastructure proposals, it’s clear they aren’t interested in advancing the ball on Gateway,” said Angelo Roefaro, spokesman for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Roefaro added it will be up to Schumer and Congress to get the federal funding in place for the tunnel.
In December, New York, New Jersey and Port Authority officials said $5.5 billion would be put up, through a mix of federal loans and new fees on NJ Transit rides.
U.S. Department of Transportation spokeswoman Megan Sweeney said the use of federal loans amounts to the federal government footing the whole bill.
She said the department is following the law as the project works its way through a federal infrastructure funding program.
John Pocari, interim director of the Gateway Development Corp., said federal funding needs to be in place this budget for construction on the Hudson River tunnel to start in 2019 as planned.
“We can’t afford any delay,” he said. “The clock is ticking on this 107-year-old tunnel and 107-year-old bridge that were carrying passengers when the Titanic was under construction.”