Tunnel under the Hudson River to begin construction in 2023

Thanks to new federal funds, construction will begin next year on the Gateway Rail Tunnel under the Hudson River that will connect Penn Station to New Jersey.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced this $292 million federal grant for the project.

“Everything is going to change in the Northeast and it’s going to be great for West Manhattan, not just in transportation, which is going to be very important, but also in terms of new construction and new buildings and a lot of other things that are going to happen, they’re going to happen,” the senator said democratic.

Schumer added that it would be one of the most important public works in the United States as it could generate national and regional economic, mobility and safety benefits.

According to the Project Development Commission, this will increase reliability, durability and flexibility for the more than 200,000 passengers like Estephanie Betances, who travel by train each day through the tunnels under the Hudson River to and from New Jersey to New York.

Betances says she’s tired of Amtrak’s failures.

“If it actually happened, it would be wonderful, because right now with the cold and everything that was crap… they were saying the train was okay and it wasn’t okay. The course always clears the train,” Betances said.

As part of the project, the North River tunnel will be restored, which is crossed by 450 trains every day and which has deteriorated over time.

As well as being exposed to salt water during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which damaged electrical and mechanical equipment and created cracks in concrete walls.

In addition to its important economic and social benefits, there will also be environmental benefits. It will try to avoid greenhouse gas emissions by making train use more attractive and reliable for users.

For years, the tunnel project was the subject of a dispute between the then governors, Republican Chris Cristie of New Jersey and Democrat Andrew Cuomo of New York. And then between Cuomo and former President Trump.

The project is expected to create more than 72,000 jobs during the construction period, as well as generate $19 billion in economic activity.