Dear Governor Cuomo and Governor Murphy,

The Build Gateway Now Coalition is a group of over 45 civic, labor, business, and elected groups from New York and New Jersey united by the tenet that the Gateway Program is the nation’s most urgent infrastructure project. The Hudson Tunnel project will greatly benefit our communities by adding over 70,000 construction jobs and creating $19 billion in economic activity. This project has already been delayed for far too long. Each day of additional delay adds $1.2 million in inflation to the project’s overall cost.

We sincerely appreciate your support in helping the Hudson Tunnel Project of the Gateway Program finally receive a positive Record of Decision (ROD) and Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) from the federal government after years of delay from Washington D.C.

In light of that success, we write to urge you to expediently identify the state funding sources to support the project’s financial plan — which should be completed by the end of July. The financial plan, previously submitted to the Federal Transportation Administration’s (FTA) Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program, was updated last August. It is our understanding the FTA will update the rating for the project at a similar time this year, meaning that any improvements to the local share of the funding should be completed by the end of this month.

In total, New York and New Jersey promised to share in covering approximately half of the project’s overall cost — most recently totaling $5.5 Billion. While $2.7 Billion of those funds have already been identified by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the balance of the local share has not yet been firmly identified.

By advancing the ROD and FEIS, the Biden Administration has indicated support for advancing the project. Currently, the Hudson Tunnel Project’s rating is listed by the FTA as ​“under review”, a designation given to just a small number of other projects around the country.

Guidance given by FTA has repeatedly emphasized the willingness of the agency to continue to support projects listed as ​“under review” including this passage from their FY 2022 annual report: ​“FTA emphasizes that the process of CIG project evaluation and rating is ongoing. As a proposed CIG project proceeds through planning and design, information concerning costs, benefits, financial plans, and impacts is refined and the project rating may be reassessed to reflect new information.”

Moreover, the FTA’s reporting instructions state the following: ​“FTA emphasizes that project sponsors may request advancement into Project Development or Engineering at any time throughout the year, and need not tie advancement to the Annual Report schedule.”

With promised support from New York and New Jersey, the Hudson Tunnel project can pursue a full funding grant agreement to finally get the project underway in earnest. While the federal government still must fund half of the project cost, with an active federal partner in the Biden administration, there may never be a better opportunity to build this absolutely essential infrastructure.

Thank you for your attention to this important issue. We look forward to working with you to move this project forward.

Sincerely,

Brian Fritsch
Campaign Manager, Build Gateway Now