Shutting down the Hudson River Tunnels to repair Superstorm Sandy damage without having new tunnels already in place would cost the national economy $16 billion, according to a report released by civic organization Regional Plan Association and professional services firm Arup.
The two tunnels carry up to 450 trains in and out of Penn Station daily. To conduct repairs, workers would need to close the tunnels individually. This would reduce the number of trains by as much as 75 percent.
According to the report, the four-year-long repairs would increase congestion and auto accidents, reduce home values by $22 billion, cause $1.5 billion in lost federal tax revenue, and cause $1 billion in lost state tax revenue outside of New York and Jersey.
“This report outlines what a grim new reality will look like,” Tom Wright, president of Regional Plan Association, said. “Every day that we aren’t building the Gateway project, we’re one day closer to real economic and social calamity that would be felt across the Tri-State area and beyond.”
Funding for the Gateway project was promised by the Obama administration, but now funding is uncertain. The project would build a new tunnel underneath the Hudson River before repairing the original tunnels.