Hello, I’m Brian Fritsch, Campaign Manager for the Build Gateway Now Coalition. Build Gateway Now is a coalition of over 45 civic, labor, business, and elected groups including Regional Plan Association, ABNY, the Partnership for NYC, Building Congress, General Contractors Association–among many others– united by a single tenet - the Gateway Program is the nation’s most urgent infrastructure project. Thank you to Chair Paulin and the rest of the committee for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the coalition today.
We encourage the New York Legislature to firmly and concretely support the Gateway Program and all of its project pieces given New York and New Jersey are inexorably intertwined. For example, nearly 475,000 New Jersey resident tax filers accounted for $3.7 billion in New York state income tax liability in the tax year 2018. Additionally, New Jersey residents account for 8% of total New York state income tax liability generated by all filers.
The infrastructure that connects these two states, however, is now outdated and crumbling. Nowhere is that more clear than at the 110-year-old Hudson Tunnel, which Amtrak must work diligently to maintain. If the tunnel reaches the end of its useful life–which is not far off–they may be forced to close one tube of the tunnel at a time for an extended period. This will have dramatic economic and environmental impacts, including adding two million tons of harmful CO2 emissions, a $16 billion dollar hit to the national economy, a $7 billion loss of tax revenue, and a $22 billion reduction in property values. We must not delay.
On the flip side, building Gateway could be a boon for the regional economy’s recovery from the pandemic. Construction of the Hudson Tunnel project alone has been projected to create 72,000 jobs and $19B in economic activity, while the Portal North Bridge will create another 11,600 jobs. There has never been a better time to invest in the future of our region. We have already been delayed for too long in acting on this project due to the Trump Administration’s refusal to move the project forward for over three years. Every day of additional delay adds $1.2 million in inflation to the project’s overall cost.
Fortunately, there have been a number of key steps to help the project move forward. The Portal North Bridge project is moving swiftly to the start of construction. The EIS for the Hudson Tunnel project was done at the beginning of the Summer to allow key pre-construction work to begin, including property acquisition in Manhattan.
The Gateway Coalition also applauds Congress for passing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act recently. It is a historic and generational investment in the nation’s rail systems that sends a clear message - we should no longer tolerate century-old assets plagued with problems that cause numerous delays. It also clearly shows our elected officials see the importance of building a network for rail that will get commuters around faster, safer, and more reliably than ever.
With the improved financial plan submitted by the Port Authority and GDC for the Hudson Tunnel project this past August, we expect an improved project rating from the Federal Transit Administration in short order. The plan meets all the benchmarks needed for a medium or better rating. The improvement in the rating is crucial to getting the project done quickly and efficiently. Again, this will help us avoid catastrophe if the existing tunnel must be partially shut down for an extended period.
We know we can’t take anything for granted, however. Gateway’s predecessor, the Access the Region’s Core project, was canceled by the Christie Administration eleven years ago. Ironically, this was at a time when the project was even farther along than the Hudson Tunnel Project is today and was scheduled to be completed by now. Instead, it is a cautionary tale about how fragile “done deals” are and why we can’t take our eye off the ball, even when we think everything is moving forward. ARC would have clearly been a big net positive for the region economically and environmentally. Every moment we delay on building the Hudson Tunnel Project costs us dearly. We desperately need more capacity, resiliency, and redundancy under the Hudson River. This is what the Gateway Program will provide once finished.
Gateway is also an investment in the future of our region for the next 100 years by rehabilitating and expanding the busiest section of the Northeast Corridor, which contributes 20% of our nation’s GDP. We cannot allow these critical pieces of our transportation network to reach a point where they need to be taken out of service. The impacts to the region would be severe.
Thank you again to Chair Paulin and the other Assembly members for your time and for the opportunity to submit our public comment to you today.
