Building Congress Testifies in Support of Gateway Project, Calls on Leaders to Keep Momentum Going

First Gateway Tunnel Project almost done, despite 2-month federal payment freeze

Updated: Dec. 23, 2025, 10:02 a.m. | Published: Dec. 16, 2025, 7:30 a.m.

By Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

With five projects under construction and two tunnel boring machines on their way to New Jersey, progress continues on the $16 billion Gateway Tunnel project, despite a two-month federal payment freeze.

Gateway Development Commission (GDC) officials went through a list of progress Monday including the near completion of one project in New Jersey and the shipment of the first of two massive tunnel boring machines.

The primary question remains; when will federal officials finish a hastily ordered review of the project and resume paying for the project they committed to in July 2024?

The federal government shutdown ended on Nov. 12, allowing the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to resume an Oct. 1 review.

That review was to determine compliance with a new rule that was finalized 24 hours earlier, which stopped federal reimbursement payments for ongoing Gateway construction projects.

But work has progressed, with the early Gateway project to build a new bridge to carry Routes 1&9-Tonnelle Avenue over the route of the new tunnel in North Bergen almost complete.

The GDC reported significant progress on the Hudson Yards Tunnel box and other projects on the New York side of the Hudson at Monday’s commission meeting.

The first tunnel boring machine is expected to arrive in New Jersey in January, be assembled in North Bergen and begin drilling through the Palisades to Weehawken next Spring.

The commission has funded that construction work that employs roughly 11,000 construction workers by relying on a revolving credit agreement with Bank of America approved in July 2024.

“We have continued to utilize the line of credit GDC established as part of the Full Funding Grant Agreement,” GDC spokesperson Stephen Sigmund said. “There is a $500 million line of credit. We continue to utilize it and can do so for a number of weeks.”

That has kept work going since the FTA announced that Gateway was being reviewed to determine if it complied with a new federal rule. FTA officials did not respond to questions about the review on Monday.

The interim final rule, signed on Sept. 30, bars the consideration of race or gender in contracts awarded under a Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, or DBE, program, which includes businesses owned by people of color and women.

The FTA notified the GDC of the review and payment suspension the next day, despite language in the rule saying reasonable time would be allowed for agencies to comply.

In October, Gateway officials said all DBE goals were suspended, pending the FTA’s review. “We followed the new Federal Rule,” Sigmund said.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), which oversees the FTA, confirmed last week that the review has resumed, he said.

“We are having ongoing discussions,” Sigmund said.

Several people who spoke at Monday’s commission meeting to support Gateway made guarded statements calling for the federal issue to be resolved soon to keep the project on schedule.

“We need all our leaders in Washington, Albany and Trenton to work together to keep momentum going,” said Mateo Colón, a New York Building Congress representative.

The federal rule was proposed after a Sept. 23, 2024, decision by a U.S. District Court judge on a case brought in Kentucky.

That ruling said the Disadvantaged Business Enterprises program’s statutory race-and gender-based presumptions were too broad and didn’t comply with the Constitution’s promise of equal protection under the law.

“We are having ongoing discussions to work cooperatively with our Federal partners to ensure we continue to comply with all federal laws and regulations,” Sigmund said.

An added complication was President Donald Trump’s Oct. 15 declaration that Gateway was “terminated” which was retaliation for U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer’s shut down of the federal government.

That statement was gently walked back by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. The tunnel project was still under review, but was slowed by federal employees furloughed during the shutdown, he said in late October.