The main TBM components are starting to arrive and get staged for assembly with delivery expected to continue throughout the upcoming weeks. Large cranes are now set up at Tonnelle Avenue, likely to aid in its assembly.
In addition, I have come to learn that, allegedly, the second track of the Portal Bridge will be connected sometime in early October. The Gateway Program also has announced that the Hudson County access shaft slurry wall is at 50% completion. Once it is finished, excavation can begin to actually dig the shaft which will permit swapping of TBMs for the Hudson river portion.
That’s bad news for customers who rely on “Midtown Direct” service, as those trains will all be diverted to Hoboken for a month, and they will not stop at Secaucus Junction. That will easily add 30-45 minutes to most commutes.
It’ll also happen in October as the 2nd track is activated. Unfortunately the cutover is not a quick process as poles and utilities have to be moved and only then can the track be connected.
That’s insane. Why can’t they do the second shutdown in August when fewer passengers are traveling to work and the wires are too saggy to run most trains anyway?
More dumb theatrics. Gateway is fully funded, there is nothing to “block”. If they somehow try and interfere with money already allocated by Congress, they’ll be successfully sued, obviously.
The article is very confusing. Did the administration rescind funding?
It sounds like Congress did not include funding in the budget package, which hasn’t even been sent to the president yet.
I think it’s important to be accurate. The White House does lots of things related to transportation that are driven solely by retribution, ego and chaos, but in this particular case, it’s the legislative branch’s doing (if I understood the article correctly).
He already announced that funding was terminated quite a while ago. It’s largely noise as the first TBM is being delivered and prepared for assembly on-site, construction is still full-speed and the Portal Bridge opens its first track in March.
Plus the money was already awarded ages ago so I don’t think they can’t rescind already appropriated funding.
At any rate, these “terminations” have a way of backfiring on the malignant mango. When he tried to cancel $4 billion for California HSR, the state committed to $20 billion
There’s a lot of issues that they had (and still have) to overcome. Aside from constant sabotage by Republicans (especially in the Federal government, where there is no desire or incentive to undertake projects like this), there’s land acquisitions, extremely extensive environmental impact study requirements, NIMBYs trying to block the project and then the actual construction of the right of way, grade separation where roads intersect the ROW, (along with utility relocations).
A lot of construction is taking place and the track laying will be some of the final steps once significant work is complete.
Check it out: The HYCC3 Team has connected one of the HYCC 2 trackbeds to the new one. They are now working on punching out the 2nd track and finishing concrete work.
And Tonnelle Avenue is reaching substantial completion, with the center median barrier installed and traffic is being shifted to permit lane striping and other finishing touches.
Most important though is more TBM components are arriving for the first TBM.
The TBM’s cutter head pieces are arriving and being staged for assembly. I did notice on the live cam some unusual green pieces have arrived and thanks to some awesome drone footage by Kyle Tillyer, I got great confirmation and updates that confirm these critical pieces have arrived.
Major pieces have been arriving at night, with delivery trucks being escorted by police.
Welp, the anti-urban, anti-NY, murderous tyrant strikes again… this time, using federal funding to punish his enemies (blue states) like a petty child! I would love to hear how people can still defend this guy.
Question though, if funding was approved by congress and has been suspended since last October, how come there hasn’t been any litigation yet?
Trump says he terminated it, but work kept on going. Also, I’m glad Congress had a backbone and got Gateway more money.
Is it really worth it to litigate what amounted to hot air? He can’t exactly take back funds that were already disbursed. His ramblings did not slow down or stop construction. If he managed to get work to stop, then I can see justification for litigation, but work didn’t stop, so it’s better to just ignore him.
According to that NYTimes article (not sure if you read it), federal money actually stopped flowing in October and all this time they have been operating on a line of credit that has been exhausted:
“But that money from Washington stopped flowing in October while the government was shut down. Officials at the federal Department of Transportation said the funding would remain suspended until the project’s contracts could be reviewed for compliance with new rules about businesses owned by women and minorities.
Despite assurances from the tunnel project’s manager, the Gateway Development Commission, that it would comply, the funding has not been restored.
Close to 1,000 union laborers have continued working on the project at five sites in Manhattan and northern New Jersey. But officials of the development commission warned that they could not stay on schedule toward completion in 2035 unless the suspension was lifted soon.
At the commission’s monthly board meeting on Tuesday, its chief executive, Thomas Prendergast, told the board that construction would have to stop by Feb. 6 when a line of credit that has kept it going would be exhausted.
“We have notified contractors that work will have to stop on Feb. 6,” Mr. Prendergast said. “We have gone as far as we can possibly go with the available resources.””
