(Bloomberg) — The long-delayed $16 billion rail tunnel project connecting New York and New Jersey has officially secured billions of dollars in federal funds.
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The Federal Transit Administration will invest close to $6.9 billion to what is known as the Gateway program — the largest grant ever signed by the agency, according to a press release Monday by the US Department of Transportation.
“Today we are here to announce really this time it is real, to cross the finish line on one of the most challenging and most important milestones for Gateway,” New York Senator Chuck Schumer said at an event in New York City on Monday.
“The light at the end of the Gateway tunnel is signed sealed and delivered,” he added, referring to the infusion of funds.
Securing the funding brings the federal share of the project’s total costs to more than 70%, with its portion nearing $12 billion, according to the release. The remainder of the project’s costs are covered by New York, New Jersey and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The new tunnel will be in service by 2035 and the full rehabilitation of the existing tunnel will be complete by 2038.
“Sit back everybody enjoy the magic of this moment because it may not happen again in your lifetime,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at the event.
The project seeks to ease congestion under the Hudson River by adding a new tunnel and making upgrades to the more than a century-old existing passenger rail tunnel. The structure that runs up and down the US East Coast becomes a chokepoint at the border of New York and New Jersey.
Both New Jersey Transit and Amtrak trains now have to pass through a one-way in, one-way out tunnel to enter Manhattan. One minor disruption to that narrow passage can ripple across both train lines and cause headaches for commuters. The issue came to a head last month when wire issues and a disabled train disrupted Amtrak and NJ Transit service.
Gateway’s sponsors had been rushing to get the full funding agreement in place ahead of the November presidential election. Politics have derailed the effort in the past. In 2010, then New Jersey Governor Chris Christie canceled the project, saying the state couldn’t afford it. The Gateway project was proposed a year later but eventually stalled under the Trump administration.
The Gateway tunnel is one of a number of efforts to revamp the nation’s roads, rail and bridges that President Joe Biden has been touting. Biden has said the project is key for the entire Northeast region.
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