Photo: Tutor Perini
The government agency charged with overseeing the construction of a new pair of rail tunnels under the Hudson River and other related infrastructure announced last week it had received money to push forward on a time-sensitive section of the project.
The Gateway Development Corp. said it had received $12.5 million from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to relocate utilities to make way for the concrete casing that will link to the tunnel and run under the Hudson Yards development on the Far West Side.
Two sections of the casing have been built so far, at a cost of $250 million, stretching under the east side of the Hudson Yards project. As the Related Cos., the real estate company spearheading the Hudson Yards development, plans to soon begin decking over the western section of the rail yards to undertake the second half of the project, there is growing urgency to build the final leg of the concrete casing. Once the deck is installed, the casing can no longer be built, creating a potentially ominous deadline.
The last section of the underground casing is expected to cost $440 million or more, much of that coming from New York and New Jersey or their state-controlled transit agencies, including the Port Authority, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New Jersey Transit. Federal dollars will also be required to fund a portion of the casing’s cost. In March Congress set aside more than $540 million for the Gateway project, although it wasn’t immediately clear how much of that would be available for the casing.
The tube will provide a pathway for trains leaving Penn Station to either enter the new tunnels or emerge from New Jersey. The tunnels are considered essential infrastructure given that the existing tubes that feed into Penn Station were damaged during Superstorm Sandy and are in need of repairs that the current rate of train traffic doesn’t allow.
“Finishing the Hudson Yards concrete casing is an essential step toward construction of a new tunnel,” John Porcari, interim executive director of the Gateway Development Corp., said in a statement.
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