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Although we're still over a decade away from its potential grand opening (if all goes as planned, that is), we're delighted to tell you about the Gateway Hudson Tunnel Project, a plan that includes the debut of a new rail tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey.
Earlier this week, officials announced that the Biden-Harris administration pledged tens of billions of dollars in grants to help move the project forward.
“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,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in an official statement. “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 110-year-old tunnels that are currently connecting the two states were damaged during Superstorm Sandy. The plan is to renovate them and also build new, more modern routes alongside them. So there will be a total of four tunnels for Amtrak and NJ Transit trains once the bulk of the scheme is accomplished.
According to NBC New York, equipment is currently set up on West 30th Street in Manhattan, with massive digging scheduled to kick off at the end of 2024 or early 2025. The building of the New Jersey side of the tunnel will likely take through 2027 and the new rail is supposedly going to open by 2035.
But the project involves a variety of other design and infrastructure elements, including, according to an official press release, “building resiliency and safeguarding rail operations against future extreme weather events, managing floods on both sides of the Hudson River, and creating a safer environment for first responders, maintenance workers, and the public, especially in the event of an evacuation.”
Although New Yorkers are renownedly allergic to all things New Jersey, there is just something about ease of travel that gets us giddy with excitement when it comes to these latest transit updates.