{"id":124536,"date":"2026-02-05T23:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T23:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124536\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T23:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T23:59:09","slug":"trump-refusal-to-release-hudson-river-tunnel-project-funds-to-put-1000-out-of-work-by-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124536\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump refusal to release Hudson River tunnel project funds to put 1,000 out of work by weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration\u2019s refusal to distribute promised funds for the Hudson River Tunnel<\/a> project will force work to stop and put nearly 1,000 construct workers out of a job by week\u2019s end, officials with the The Gateway Develop Commission said Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cTomorrow work on the largest, most urgent infrastructure project in America will come to a pause,\u201d Gateway CEO Tom Prendergast told reporters Thursday, standing amid idle cranes at the project\u2019s 12th Ave. access shaft, one of the tunnel project\u2019s four active construction sites affected by the funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunding pledged to the project in fully executed grant and loan agreements has not flowed since October 1st,\u201d he said. \u201cOn Friday, tomorrow, nearly 1,000 workers will lay down their tools after spending nearly $1 billion and countless hours of hard work on this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration announced it would no longer distribute billions in congressionally-approved funds to the GDC in October during the first day of the federal-government shut down, citing a need to ensure the project was in compliance with contracting rules that the feds had changed just hours before.<\/p>\n

But weeks later, as Gateway officials demonstrated compliance, the Trump administration shifted gears.<\/p>\n

White House spokesman Kush Desai claimed the funding freeze was over the fact that Democratic lawmakers had supposedly not been \u201cprioritizing the interests of Americans over illegal aliens.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\"TheThe site off 29th St. in Manhattan is slated to become a ventilation shaft for the Hudson River Tunnel. (Evan Simko-Bednarski\u00a0\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

As of this week, the tunnel project has exhausted it\u2019s contingency line of credit, save for some of what GDC will need to wind down the project, Rinaldi told The News \u2014 including mothballing the massive tunnel boring machine currently sitting in pieces off of Tonnelle Avenue in Jersey City.<\/p>\n

Nearly 1,000 construction workers could be laid off the project as early as this weekend if the Trump administration continues to block the funds.<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo construction workers stand on an idle crane Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Manhattan. GDC officials say the funding freeze will require them to lay off 1,000 workers this weekend. (Evan Simko-Bednarski\u00a0\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d be a real shame to have to close these gates and lay these booms down of these cranes and send all of our guys home, just to wait on some response from some politicians,\u201d said Giulio Petroni, a foreman on the site with Laborer\u2019s Union Local 731.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to keep on working, we want to keep on providing for our families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnAn American flag hangs from a hydromill machine for digging through rock Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, at a construction site near Hudson Yards in Manhattan. (Evan Simko-Bednarski\u00a0\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

GDC sued the Trump administration earlier this week, alleging the refusal to fund the tunnel constituted a breach of contract, but that case isn\u2019t expected to be taken up before this weekend.<\/p>\n

An emergency hearing in a second suit \u2014 an eleventh-hour effort to restore the funding brought this week by the states of New York and New Jersey<\/a> \u2014 is expected in Manhattan federal court on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration\u2019s refusal to distribute promised funds for the Hudson River Tunnel project will force work to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[85,267,75,84,83,9,24,264,10,12,63,608],"class_list":["post-124536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}