Monday morning in North Bergen, governors from New York and New Jersey joined U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Cory Booker in hard hats and construction vests to kick off the boring machine's ceremonial start. The machine is slated to begin actual excavation in the coming days. Schumer put it bluntly: "The machine works real hard."
The Gateway tunnel will add a two-track link for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit between New Jersey and Manhattan's Penn Station, and the existing, more-than-100-year-old tube will be refurbished after suffering storm water damage. The new tunnel is planned to open in 2035, with the rehabilitation of the existing tube finishing in 2038.
Two tunnel boring machines will start under New Jersey's Palisades Cliffs, each with a 28-foot, 8-inch cutterhead and a weight of more than 1,680 tons. They are expected to carve through about a mile of hard, dry rock at roughly 30 feet per day. After roughly a year, the cutters are expected to arrive at a Weehawken access shaft, at which point a pair of fresh machines will assume the drive under the Hudson River.
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The existing, aging tunnel is a bottleneck that frequently triggers delays and cancellations in a region that lives on public transit. About 200,000 passenger-rail riders rely on it each day for trips into and out of Manhattan. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill said, "Our region is the beating heart of America, generating 20% of the nation's gross domestic product," adding, "And this 10-mile stretch of track is its main artery."
This project has had a long road. A previous effort was canceled in 2010 by then-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who said the state would be responsible for any cost overruns. Federal support for the Gateway tunnel was restored earlier this year, following a halt imposed by the Trump administration in 2025, and the administration is continuing to contest that funding in court.
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