By rosebell
In order to releasing funding for the Hudson Tunnel Project, President Trump’s administration is appealing a US District Court ruling ordering the federal government.
Due to that federal funding has been withheld since October last year, construction on the project was suspended on 6 February.
According to New Jersey’s acting attorney general, Jennifer Davenport: “The ruling by US District Court judge Jeannette Vargas on Friday was recognition that the Trump administration’s attempts to freeze funding were plainly illegal. The Trump Administration must drop this campaign of political retribution immediately and must allow work on this vital infrastructure project to continue. If not, I pledge to keep fighting in court on behalf of all New Jerseyans.”
As construction stopped at 5pm on Friday, Gateway Development Commission (GDC) CEO Tom Prendergast said: “After spending more than US$1bn and time on the project, we will be left with empty construction sites in New York and New Jersey.
“The construction pause was a setback, but it is not the end. GDC will continue to do everything in our power to get our funding restored and deliver the most urgent infrastructure project in the country,” added Prendergast.
While the immediate loss of almost 1,000 jobs, is result of pausing construction, an extended pause would put at risk approximately 11,000 construction jobs on the current projects, as well as the 95,000 jobs and US$19.6bn in economic activity that construction is anticipated to generate overall.
As the most heavily used passenger rail line in the country, t the 116-year-old North River Tunnel will be in the risk of shut down due to delay in completion of the HTP.
The federal grants are the majority funders of the budget for the HTP and the US Department of Transportation and GDC have been legally bound to the terms of Capital Investment Grants, Federal-State Partnership Grant, and RAISE Grant agreements, and Railroad Rehabilitation and Investment Financing loans, since July 2024, when full funding for the HTP was secured.
The federal government has suspended the release of its contractually obligated funds since October 1, 2025. After working with its federal partners for months to meet their requirements for restoring funding, GDC filed a lawsuit against the federal government in the US Court of Federal Claims seeking judgment that would release contractually obligated grant and loan funds for the HTP.
