In an ongoing dispute over federal funding for New Jersey’s Portal Bridge replacement and Gateway Tunnel projects, state politicians are calling on the Trump Administration for urgent action.
Lawmakers joined New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy this week urging federal and state unity to replace the more than 100-year-old Portal Bridge and Gateway Tunnel. Such age is beginning to wear on the swing-span Portal Bridge especially, causing delays as it gets stuck upon opening for maritime traffic.
“The successful and efficient operation of the Northeast Corridor has profound consequences for our region’s commuters and economy, and no bridge improvement project is more consequential to the flow of goods and services than the Portal North Bridge Project,” Murphy said. “While federal officials have continued to move the goalposts, New Jersey and our partners have held up our end of the bargain, have put more skin in the game, and developed financial, construction and engineering plans that are second-to-none. New Jersey is ready. The time to build Portal North Bridge is now.”
Months ago, then-U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation Jeffrey Rosen dismissed the projects as off the federal budget, listing them as local responsibilities. The tunnel and Portal Bridge are both owned by the federal passenger railroad company Amtrak, New Jersey, and New York have publicly committed more than $5 billion to work on them. Rosen has since moved on to become the U.S. Deputy Attorney General, but federal funding has still not moved forward.
The New Jersey delegation have pointed to the state’s funding of the projects, the proper steps are taken, and the age of the structures to urge forward momentum, labeling it a project of national significance. The replacement for the Portal Bridge would be a high-level fixed-span bridge that would allow trains to achieve faster speeds and greater seating capacities, but while the project has previously earned the necessary ratings for federal funding — it must achieve medium or higher — the Trump Administration’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) downgraded it, earning claims from project proponents of politically-driven decisions.
“Gateway is the most important infrastructure project in the nation,” U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) said. “Without critical federal investment soon, the Portal Bridge and century-old Hudson Tunnel will face increasing safety risks and could eventually become unusable. This would impact hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans, New Yorkers, and others who travel the Northeast Corridor for their daily commute… I urge the Trump Administration to immediately take up and approve the recently revised Gateway proposal that will finally allow workers in our state to put shovels in the ground. We simply cannot wait any longer.”