Getting Ready To Dig In
By: Colleen Wilson
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... Disassembled sections of the first of two tunnel boring machines that will dig a $16 billion rail tunnel under the Hudson River between North Jersey and Manhattan are on their way to the Garden State.
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The German-made machine were assembled, tested and dissembled before they get shipped to ports in Elizabeth and Baltimore. Tom Prendergast, CEO and president of the Gateway Development Commission told the board on December 15. 2025]
..... The first sections will arrive in North Bergen later this month, [12/2025] where they will be reassembled.
..... This is the biggest federally funded infrastructure program in the country, which will include building a twp-track tunnel for use by NJ Transit and Amtrak between Secaucus and Penn Station New York. The new tunnel should be finished by 2035.
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After the new tunnel is completed, the century-old two-track tunnel currently used by the railroads will receive long overdue repairs to address aging and damage, with all four tracks expected to be operational in 2038.
..... Tunneling will begin in the spring [2026] after spending about three months testing the boring machines on-site.
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There will be two machines drilling two tubes and construction the concrete liner through the Palisades rock under North Bergen, Union city, Hoboken and Weehawken. At that point, a new drill bit of sorts will be swapped out on the boring machines for tone more suited to collect and discard muck from the Hudson River.
..... Once the tunnel reaches Manhattan, the machines will slice through the historic bulkhead supporting 12th and 11th Avenues, ending at the underground entrance to New York Penn Station.
..... The December 15 [2025] board meeting was the first the Gateway Development commission board, which oversees the tunnel project, has held since September 30. [2025]
..... In the time, the federal government shut down, and the Trump administration stopped making reimbursement payments to the commission amid a controversial review into its procurement practices.
..... In addition, President Donald Trump vaguely threatened to terminate the project, the commission's president and CEO was hospitalized for a cardiac event, and a worker died at the concrete casing project site in Manhattan.
..... Prendergast said investigations of the workers death are ongoing, but said the agency performed "safety stand-downs" immediately after the incident.
..... Amtrak is the lead agency of that project site. The worker was employed by New York concrete Corporation.
When will federal dollars return?
..... As far as the issue over funding, Prendergast said the Gateway Development commission responded to a letter it received earlier this month [12/2025] from the U.S. Department of Transpiration. The U.S. DOT updated the commission about its review of procurement, as well as steps the commission should take to allow federal funds to start flowing again.
..... The central focus of the review is the agency's disadvantaged business enterprise program, a federal program certified by local state agencies, to involve small, women and minority-owned businesses in contracts involving federal dollars.
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"We're going to be fully compliant with the request they've made in terms of the requirements for DBE for all of our contracts and they're part of the discussions we're having with them,' Prenderegast said, referring to disadvantaged business enterprises. "The discussions are ongoing with the goal of getting the funds flowing again."
..... Work on the five active construction sites that make up the tunnel project has continued during the funding pause and the Gateway commission has relied on cash-on-hand and a line of credit to pay back contractors in the interim.
..... At the December 15 [2025] meeting the board approved the agency's $77 million 2026 budget, which included $30 million for interest on a short-term facility, up from the $17.2 million budgeted for interest on a short-term facility for the current year.
Court weighs in on labor dispute
..... A judge ruled in favor of the commission after George Harms Construction Incorporated - a Farmingdale-based contractor interested in biding on one of the agency's upcoming projects - asked the court to pause bidding on the project, which involves building the track and related components between Secaucus and North Bergen.
..... Susan D. Wigenton, a judge in the U.S. Distrct Court in New Jersey, said Harms did not meet its "burden of demonstrating a likelihood of success on the mertis or irreparable harm."
..... Wigenton denied Harms' request to pause the bidding. Bids on the project, known as the New Jersey surface alignment project, were due December 10. [2025]
..... The issue between Harms and the Gateway commission has been brewing for month, with Rob Harms, the company's CEO, calling on the agency to change tis labor agreement at public board meetings over the summer. [2025]
..... Harms has a labor agreement with the steelworkers union and said it would not be able to bid on the surface alignment project because the gateway commission struck a project labor agreement with the Hudson County Building and Construction Trades Council, which includes 21 labor unions, but not the steelworkers.
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The Gateway commission has maintained that nothing is preventing Harms form bidding on the project.
..... In her decision published last week, [12/12/2025]
Wigenton wrote, "The GDC has the power to use and be sued, acquire property, and enter into and execute contracts ... and the PLA's terms are not exclusionary," referring to the project labor agreement.
..... Wigenton also said Harms could be successful in court on their arguments regarding First Amendment rights and whether the Gateway commission's project labor agreement would "unlawfully compel speech in the from of fringe benefits payments."
..... Stephen Signmund, a Gateway commission spokesman, said the agency is pleased with the court's decision.
..... "We continue the process for awarding the contract for this critical component of the Hudson Tunnel Project to help deliver the most urgent passenger rail project in the country," Sigmund said.
..... Kevin J. Coakley, a partner at Connell Foley, counsel for Harms, said the company was happy about the court's agreement over First Amendment rights.
..... These benefit payments, Coakley said in a statement, would go to the "handpicked unions in line to profit from the sweetheart deal.
..... "We are considering our next steps, including an appeal to prevent this process from moving forward under th shadow of a clearly unlawful agreement," Coakley said.
..... The company can appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.