Overview
- Officials announced Monday that the first tunnel-boring machine has been ceremonially launched to start excavating the Hudson Tunnel Project.
- The Gateway Development Commission ordered two nearly 29-foot-diameter Herrenknecht machines that will first carve roughly a mile through the Palisades before work moves beneath the Hudson River.
- Contractors say the Palisades drive will advance about 30 feet per day and reach the Hudson County access shaft in roughly one year where machines will be swapped for the river crossing.
- The project resumed construction after a months-long federal funding freeze prompted New York and New Jersey to sue and win restoration of funds that had briefly halted work.
- When finished the two-tube tunnel and rehabilitation of the century-old North River tubes aim to increase capacity and reliability for roughly 200,000 daily riders and reduce economic risk from a potential tunnel shutdown.