A ceremonial switch was flipped in New Jersey to start one of two tunnel boring machines that will help build a new rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey, advancing the $16 billion Gateway Tunnel project.
The tunnel will add redundancy and eventually more capacity for trains between the two states and allow the current 116-year-old tunnel to be repaired once completed.
The 1,700-ton machines are 500 feet long, with cutter heads more than 28 feet wide.
At least 40 people will operate the machines as they carve two tubes through the New Jersey Palisades over the next year, with each tube eventually carrying one track.
“Today, we’re beginning something that some may call boring. I think today is anything but boring,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said during the ceremony.
James Starace, chief of program delivery for the Gateway Development Commission, said the machines will cut and break rock, move it through cutter head openings onto a conveyor and carry it to carts that will be railed out from the back of the machine.
The conveyor will also move precast tunnel liner sections that will be installed as the machines advance.
The machines now being used were custom built to push through the Palisades to the Hudson River.
Once that work is complete, they will be removed and replaced with a different set of machines to bore under the Hudson River.
“Because the rocks and the geotechnical grounds [are] different,” Tom Prendergast, CEO of the Gateway Development Commission, said.
The project comes as the existing tunnel used by New Jersey Transit and Amtrak carries about 200,000 people a day and needs repairs because of damage from Hurricane Sandy.
Officials said a failure of the tunnel would affect the economies of New York, New Jersey and the country by limiting access for workers and visitors traveling to the city.
“Our region is the beating heart of America, generating 20% of the nation’s GDP. And this 10-mile stretch of track is its main artery,” New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said.
Nearly half of the $16 billion project is funded by the federal government.
Last fall, the Trump administration announced it was withholding money, leading to a weeklong work stoppage in February.
The Gateway Development Commission, New York and New Jersey filed separate lawsuits against the U.S. Transportation Department, and both courts ordered the federal government to pay.
Hochul said the project must continue on schedule.
“We’re not surrendering to anyone,” she said.
The project remains on schedule. While Hochul suggested it could be completed by 2034, the current completion date is 2035.