VIDEO: New Day, New Tunnel: Biden Touts $292M Grant to Build N.J.-N.Y. Rail Connection
Thu February 02, 2023 - Northeast Edition CBS News & CEG
President Biden traveled to New York Jan. 31 to highlight a $292 million grant that will help build a critical new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey, part of a broader effort to highlight his economic vision for American infrastructure.
The president spoke from inside the Hudson River Tunnel where the construction project is taking place, reported CBS News.
"This tunnel opened for business in 1910, 113 years ago," Biden said. "And the structure is literally deteriorating. The roof is leaking, the floor is sinking. Plus, it was badly damaged by Superstorm Sandy."
Just the day before, the President was in Maryland at the site of the even older, 150-year-old Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel, still in active use by Amtrak. Not surprisingly, that tunnel also is in dire need of an upgrade.
Both projects are set to receive partially funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law, but the Hudson River project will involve the construction of an entirely separate tunnel under the river before the existing passage is rebuilt. When complete, the new tunnel will allow trains to run at faster speeds and with no interruptions, Biden said, with trains traveling at up to 100 mph.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaking before the President, did not try to hide his elation.
"Finally, finally, finally, we can say Gateway will be built," Schumer said, referring to Amtrak's planned upgrades across the New York metro area, adding that without the rail tunnel under the Hudson River, America would "go into a recession overnight."
The federal money Biden announced is part of $1.2 billion in so-called "mega" grants being awarded under the 2021 infrastructure law.
Critical Need for Tunnels, New Jobs
The President's two trips amount to a form of counterprogramming to the new House Republican majority, CBS News noted. GOP lawmakers are seeking deep spending cuts in exchange for lifting the government's legal borrowing limit, saying that federal expenditures are hurting growth and that the budget should be balanced.
"Now, we're going to put real shovels in the ground, wielded by real American workers," Schumer said, following up on Biden's pledge that government spending on infrastructure will boost economic growth and create blue-collar jobs.
To some in the Biden administration, the Hudson Tunnel Project demonstrates what could be lost if spending cuts are put into place. In total, the construction effort is projected to result in 72,000 jobs, according to the White House.
Its designer's aim is to renovate the 1910 tunnel now carrying approximately 200,000 weekday passengers beneath the Hudson between New Jersey and Manhattan, a long-delayed upgrade after decades in which the government underfunded infrastructure.
CBS News reported the new federal grant would also help fund completion of the concrete casing for an additional rail tunnel beneath the river, preserving a right of way for the eventual main tunnel. In total, the entire project will likely cost about $16 billion and help ease a bottleneck for New Jersey commuters and Amtrak passengers going through New York City.
Other projects to receive mega grants include the Brent Spence Bridge, which connects Kentucky and Ohio; the Calcasieu River Bridge replacement in Louisiana; a commuter rail in Illinois; the Alligator River Bridge in North Carolina; a transit and highway plan in California; and roadways in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Mississippi.
"Americans see these projects popping up across the country, and it sends an important message: When we work together like we did on the bipartisan law and the CHIPS law, there's nothing we can't do," Biden said in New York, referring to a law to boost semiconductor manufacturing. "Name me a time when America's gone through a crunch, and it didn't come out stronger than when it went in."
