The Hudson River Tunnel, one of two major transit projects whose federal funding was halted by the Trump administration last year, is set to run out of money next week, officials said Tuesday.
“If funding does not resume, then construction will need to pause on February 6,” Tom Prendergast — head of the Gateway Development Commission, which oversees the massive $40 billion project to increase rail capacity between New York and New Jersey — told the commission’s board. “We’ve gone as far as we can go with the existing resources that are currently available.”
Sources told the Daily News that the last source of funds — a credit line from Bank of America — has run out, and no new funding sources are on the horizon.
The Trump administration paused federal reimbursements in October, in the early hours of the federal government shutdown — claiming the project, along with the MTA’s long-awaited Second Avenue subway extension — no longer complied with contracting rules that the government had changed just hours prior.
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy claimed to reporters at the time that the feds were “not trying to shut down these projects — to the contrary, we’re trying to make sure these projects move forward, move forward fast.”
But President Trump meanwhile gloated that he’d “terminated” the funding — which Congress had already allocated — simply because Democratic leadership had wanted it.
A total of $4.38 billion in federal funding has already been obligated to the $16 billion tunnel project, which aims to supplement the existing, century-old North River Tunnel into Penn Station with a pair of new tubes from the New Jersey Meadowlands.
“Billions and billions of dollars that [Sen. Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer has worked 20 years to get — it’s terminated,” the president said in October. “Tell him, ‘It’s terminated.’”
Despite the lack of federal reimbursement, work on the tunnel — the crown jewel of the broader Gateway project — has been ongoing, with active construction sites in both states and a massive tunnel-boring machine set to begin digging under Jersey City shortly.
But the money has finally run out, officials said Tuesday.
“We stand here today facing the absurd reality that this vital and fully funded project — that is otherwise moving full-steam ahead — is on the precipice of being derailed, and maybe even killed,” Schumer said Tuesday in comments to the project’s board. “It makes absolutely no sense, yet here we are.”
“All that stands in the way of Gateway moving forward is one person and one person only — President Trump,” Shumer added. “All he has to do is pick up the phone and tell the secretary of Transportation to continue funding Gateway and the project can move forward. It’s that simple. The money is already in place.”
New Jersey Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer also spoke Tuesday, addressing the president in absentia.
“President Trump, I know you don’t want to derail our progress as a nation,” Gottheimer said. “[The North River] tunnel is 116 years old — if it collapses, America will blame you. If we fall behind and our economy here falters into a recession, American families and businesses of all sizes will blame you.”
“On the flip side, you have an opportunity to do something historic,” the congressman said of restoring funding. “This is what makes America great — please don’t blow it for some petty politics, because you’re pissed off at something.”
As previously reported by the Daily News, the USDOT sent a letter to the Gateway Development Commission and the MTA last month, outlining changes to its contracting practices that would be required to restore funding.
Prendergast on Tuesday said his agency had already made such adjustments.
“Our program complied with the previous administration’s requirements,” he said. “We have proactively worked with our federal funders to maintain compliance with any rule changes enacted by the current administration.”
“We have promptly responded to any and all requests to demonstrate the project is compliant,” he said.
A USDOT spokesperson referred the Daily News to the White House when asked why funding had not yet been restored.
White House spokesman Kush Desai didn’t mention contracting rules when asked about funding restoration, but instead tied tunnel funding to the president’s historically unpopular immigration enforcement.
“There is nothing stopping Democrats from prioritizing the interests of Americans over illegal aliens and getting this project back on track,” Desai told The News in a statement. “It’s Chuck Schumer and Democrats who are standing in the way of a deal for the Gateway Tunnel Project by refusing to negotiate with the Trump administration.”
In a statement, Gov. Hochul called the continued funding pause part of “Donald Trump’s vindictive quest to hurt New Yorkers, no matter the cost.”
“The stakes are enormous,” she said. “Hundreds of thousands of daily commuters, 10,000 union jobs and billions of dollars in economic benefits all now imperiled by Donald Trump’s attempts to rip away infrastructure funding from New York.”
