Amtrak and thew Port Authority have pushed $70 million in chips to the middle of the table in a gamble to get the current momentum to the unstoppable point. Cory Booker is very confident this will now get done:
Federal officials, including U.S. Senator Cory Booker, D-NJ, the Port Authority and New York and New Jersey officials, made the announcement Wednesday, which marks the first major progress on the tunnel project since Govs. Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo announced a funding agreement between the states and federal government.
Transportation agencies are in a race against time to start the $20 billion Gateway Project before one of two 106-year-old tunnels has to be taken out of service to repair flood damage, which would severely disrupt commuter rail service.
"This is huge. It is a significant step," Booker said. "We're farther down the field than I thought we'd be last summer."
Anyone within 20 miles of the tunnel crossings know how badly another train tunnel is needed. One is going to have to be taken out of service within the next few years to fully clean Superstorm Sandy damage. Without tunnels and bridges New Jersey isn't even New York's parking lot. So there's that.
We've already seen how long the Pulaski ClusterFuck Memorial Skyway is taking and will take another half year (and just wait, that'll get pushed back too) and here we're talking a tunnel below a big river. The Skyway is existing infrastructure over a medium sized river. More important info on timing and funding at this handy link.
The Johnny Action Space Punk Trans Hudson Tunnel or "The Johnny" it has a ring to it.
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