Taxpayers in New York and New Jersey will pay $386.2 million per state to rebuild the Portal North Bridge over New Jersey's Hackensack River under a deal announced July 5 by N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Garden State Gov. Phil Murphy.
The bridge reconstruction is a key piece of the larger Gateway Program, a collection of projects valued at $33.7 billion that include the construction of two new rail tunnels beneath the Hudson River that were damaged in 2012 by Hurricane Sandy, according to the New York Daily News
The Portal North Bridge must swing open a few times a year to make way for boats to pass through, and transportation officials have said it must be rebuilt to strengthen the 112-year-old rail crossing between New York and New Jersey.
The Daily News reported Hochul and Murphy agreed to equally split $772.4 million of the cost to replace the bridge with the expectation that the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) will cover approximately $1 billion of the new bridge's remaining expenditure.
Bridge One Piece of Major Northeast Project
The two Northeast states signed a Phase One Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) deal that will finance the Portal North Bridge, designed to carry the Northeast Corridor line over the river in Kearny, N.J., build two new rail tunnels to Penn Station in New York, and rehabilitate the 111-year-old existing tunnels to and from Manhattan, reported NJ.com., a statewide digital news service.
Each piece of construction is critical to the overall Gateway infrastructure.
The agreement is a major milestone toward the goal of having federal funding in place by the end of 2022, with tunnel construction possibly starting as soon as summer 2023.
Work on the North Portal bridge has already gotten under way.
"Today marks a pivotal milestone toward the completion of the most significant transportation project — not just in New Jersey — but in the entire United States," Murphy said in a July 5 statement. "As we proceed with construction of a new tunnel under the Hudson River, we advance one step closer toward a New Jersey that is better connected and better positioned to reap the full economic benefits of our status as a regional crossroads."
Hochul added that the deal between the two states is a critical step forward in turning this vision into reality.
"By signing the Phase One [MOU], we are establishing the framework to get this project over the finish line and are making good on our promise to modernize the state's transportation infrastructure and create a mass transit system worthy of New Yorkers," she said in a press release issued from her office.
A contract to build Portal North Bridge was awarded last October, followed soon after by a notice to start construction.
In addition, Hochul and Murphy held a joint press conference in June to announce improvements to New York's Penn Station that could run concurrent to the tunnel project.
Signed MOU Needed to Get Federal Funds
Obtaining a MOU between the two states was cited by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) at this year's Regional Plan Association (RPA) General Assembly as a necessary task to get a federal funding commitment for the Gateway Tunnel.
NJ.com noted that the veteran lawmaker told state officials to "put aside their differences and sign memorandums of understanding" to get Gateway done.
The MOU advances the Gateway program to its next phase, which will detail the parties' responsibilities with respect to delivery of the Hudson Tunnel Project and move forward in the federal project review.
The deal also meets a major milestone required under the acts passed by both states in July 2019 to create the bi-state Gateway Development Commission that is overseeing the project. That legislation requires the two states to equally share the local cost to build new tunnels, rehabilitate the existing tunnels, construct a new Portal Bridge and set up strict standards of transparency and accountability.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's total commitment for Phase One is $2.7 billion. How the states would fund their share of the tunnel project still has to be decided, although one option discussed was applying for low interest long term federal railroad infrastructure loans.
Many Hurdles to Jump Before Project's Finish
However, NJ.com learned that a former Federal Transit Administration (FTA) official said a full funding grant agreement might not happen for a few years because of the intricacy of the work that remains and the size of Gateway's cost.
"The MOU is just one of many steps necessary to be completed prior to FTA offering a $12 billion plus Full Funding Grant Agreement [FFGA] for the Gateway Tunnel project," said Larry Penner, a transit expert and former FTA Region 2 official for the New York-New Jersey Metro area.
He called the MOU a baby step when considering the other work that must be done to satisfy the FTA, such as project management, budget and cost updates, and tracking cost increases and how they will be paid for, according to NJ.com.
Penner also noted there will be ongoing FTA reviews of technical, legal, and financial capacity to implement the Gateway project as well as ongoing updates to the final project scope, budget, schedule, project management and how the project will follow civil rights requirements.
He said that a $12 billion FFGA might be the largest in the FTA's history, before adding, "Given the complexity of the project, [the states] may be waiting until 2024 before the FTA is comfortable offering the [agreement]. Negotiating any FFFGA of this size and magnitude may take [as long as] a year before all parties can agree on the content and sign on the dotted line."
Today's top stories
