Overview
- Project officials ceremonially turned on the first of two Herrenknecht tunnel-boring machines in North Bergen, with final testing complete and boring set to start within days.
- The TBM is a roughly 28-foot, 8-inch cutterhead machine that will carve about one mile through the hard rock of the Palisades at roughly 30 feet per day before removal at the Hudson County access shaft.
- A second TBM is being assembled and the Palisades drive is expected to take about a year, after which machines suited for river sediments will dig the Hudson crossing toward Manhattan.
- Federal funding that had been frozen in 2025 was restored by a court order and the administration dropped its appeal earlier this year, allowing continuous work on the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project.
- Officials say the new two-tube tunnel will serve roughly 200,000 daily riders, permit rehabilitation of the Sandy-damaged 1910 North River tunnels, create thousands of construction jobs, and still faces technical, funding, and political risks to the mid-2030s delivery timetable.