NYC’s $16.1 Billion Tunnel to NJ Kicks Off Construction After Decades of Delays

Construction for Gateway project kicks off in New York City
Officials announced another $3.8 billion of federal money

A train travels through the North River from Newark, New Jersey, toward New York on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg

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By Skylar Woodhouse and Eniola Longe

November 3, 2023 at 4:28 PM UTC

The $16.1 billion, long-delayed, once-canceled effort to build a new rail tunnel linking New York and New Jersey is officially starting construction after more than a decade of false starts.

“This is a day that I know that this city, this region, this country has been looking for and waiting for for a very long time,” US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said at an event in the Hudson Yards neighborhood on the West Side of Manhattan on Friday. Buttigieg was flanked by construction equipment and was joined by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, as well as other officials.