Work on the Gateway tunnel project under the Hudson River will resume next week now that the Trump administration has released more than $205 million in frozen funds, officials said Wednesday.
Work stopped earlier this month after the Gateway Development Commission said it had run out of money and exhausted a line of credit. Some 1,000 union workers lost their jobs.
President Donald Trump had frozen money for the new train tunnel in September, saying the project would be “financially catastrophic for the region.” A source with direct knowledge of the negotiations said Trump offered to release the money if officials agreed to name Penn Station in New York City after him.
Trump denied that account. This week, he warned of cost overruns, comparing Gateway to California’s notoriously delayed and over-budget high-speed rail project.
The New York and New Jersey attorneys general sued the federal government demanding the money be released. A federal judge sided with the states.
“This funding freeze was unlawful from the start,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement Wednesday. “We took swift action in court, and now every dollar that was illegally withheld has been released.”
Officials say Gateway, which is the largest public works project in the country, is necessary because the existing century-old tunnel for Amtrak and NJ Transit trains was damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Work is expected to be completed in 2035.
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