Hudson Tunnel May Cost $12.7 Billion, U.S. Transportation Secretary Says
A commuter-rail tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan will cost $9.8 billion to $12.7 billion, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie halted the Hudson River tunnel project known as Access to the Region’s Core on Oct. 7, saying the original $8.7 billion projected cost might have reached $14 billion and the state couldn’t afford it. Christie, a first-term Republican, then agreed at LaHood’s request to delay a final decision.
“Secretary LaHood confirmed today what we knew two weeks ago -- the ARC Tunnel project is over budget and puts New Jersey taxpayers at risk of being saddled with billions of dollars in added costs,” Christie’s spokesman, Michael Drewniak, said in an e-mailed statement.
The governor “is not willing to saddle New Jersey taxpayers with a public-works project with such a large, indeterminate cost-overrun projection with no way to fund it,” he said. Drewniak said the governor will decide next week whether to cancel the project.
The low-end range of the cost to build the 8.8-mile (14.2- kilometer) path under the Hudson River is $9.775 billion; the mid-range estimate is $10.9 billion and the high end is $12.7 billion, LaHood said in the statement.
Finding a Way
LaHood said the most recent projections don’t include $775 million to build a second span of the Portal Bridge, an aging structure leading to the current tunnel. The federal government will “discuss with New Jersey officials the simultaneous construction” of a bridge, he said.
“We are committed to continuing the constructive dialogue we have had for the last two weeks with New Jersey officials to find a way to move forward on the ARC tunnel project, which will double commuter-train capacity between New Jersey and New York,” LaHood said in an e-mailed statement.
He said his agency will work with the state to keep costs at the lowest estimate.
Under the original plan, the federal government and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey each were to pay $3 billion for the work, and the state $2.7 billion. Christie said state taxpayers would be “on the hook” for anything more.
‘Disaster Scenario’
Democratic U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, a tunnel backer, today accused Christie of inflating the estimates to justify killing it.
“As the secretary said, $9.7 billion is the cost estimate,” said Caley Gray, his spokesman. “The other numbers are if there is any type of disaster scenario,”
Lautenberg said he has asked the federal government about assuming more unprojected costs.
“The whole argument by the governor that the project may have cost overruns and therefore we shouldn’t do it is clearly a red herring,” Assemblyman John Wisniewski, chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee and head of the Democratic State Committee, said. “The real question that has to be asked is can we afford not to do it?”
To contact the reporters on this story: Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at agreilingkea@bloomberg.net. Terrence Dopp in Trenton at tdopp@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net
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