$17B Hudson River Tunnel project moves into engineering phase, receives $6B grant

“Every day, 200,000 people pass through the North River Tunnel, and a closure affects not just the entire Northeast Corridor, but the entire country,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement published by the Department of Transportation. “Today, we are proud to announce that the Hudson River Tunnel Project is entering the engineering phase, moving us a huge step closer to finally revitalizing and expanding this century-old piece of American infrastructure.”

According to a description from the federal transit organization, the Hudson River Tunnel project is part of a series of strategic infrastructure investments that’s intended to improve rail service throughout New York and New Jersey called the Gateway Program. 

“The Hudson River Tunnel project is particularly critical because the existing North River Tunnel serving Penn Station is more than 110 years old and was severely damaged during Superstorm Sandy in 2012,” the statement says. “While the tunnel has been repaired frequently, its age and damaged condition present reliability concerns for more than 200,000 people who travel through the tunnel on more than 400 trains every weekday. According to a study by the Northeast Corridor Commission, commuters in 2020 were delayed more than 210 hours due to maintenance issues.”

The Hudson River Tunnel project will construct a new, two-track heavy rail tunnel along the northeast corridor from the Bergen Palisades in New Jersey to Manhattan, directly serving Penn Station New York. It will also rehabilitate the existing North River Tunnel, which carries Amtrak and NJ TRANSIT passenger trains between New Jersey and New York.

As part of the project, the statement notes that nearly 5,000 new affordable housing units will be created in the adjacent Hudson Yards. The corridor is a vital piece of the nation’s infrastructure, as it services more than 20 percent of the nation’s economy. If the North River tunnel were to shut down for one day, the transit administration estimates it would cost the United States more than $100 million. 

“Hundreds of thousands of Americans travel under the Hudson River every day, not just between New York and New Jersey but between points all along the East Coast,” said Federal Transit Administrator Administrator Nuria Fernandez. “FTA is proud to invest in the Hudson River Tunnel, through the CIG program, so these rails can continue to carry millions of people and billions of dollars that help define our country’s economy every year.”

By moving forward into the engineering phase, the project is one step closer to accessing billions of dollars in anticipated federal funding, the statement says. The CIG program is a multi-step, multi-year funding opportunity to help communities carry out transit projects nationwide. More than five dozen potential projects are currently in various phases in the CIG program’s pipeline across 23 states. The program received up to $23 billion over five years through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.