The Gateway Development Commission (GDC), which is overseeing the construction of two new rail tunnels underneath the Hudson River, sued the Trump administration late Monday night in a bid to force the feds to release vital funding they froze in October.
The legal Hail Mary aims to avoid a work stoppage on the project, which could happen as early as this Friday.
In the Feb. 2 suit, filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, lawyers for the GDC argue that Trump’s U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is in breach of a contract the agency inked with GDC under former President Biden’s administration. Under the accord, USDOT committed to funding the Gateway tunnel to the tune of $15 billion — representing 90% of the $16 billion project — through a series of federal grants.
GDC lawyers wrote that they intend to ask the court to fast-track the proceedings as the commission has warned that work on the project will grind to a halt indefinitely if the feds do not release $205 million in reimbursements they have already withheld by Friday.
Due to the time pressure for unfreezing the funds, attorneys for the commission said they will ask the court for an “expedited partial summary judgment briefing schedule.” However, the court has yet to put a hearing on the calendar, according to GDC spokesperson Molly Beckhardt.
An indefinite pause on the Gateway project would mean the immediate loss of 1,000 union jobs and could permanently derail the entire undertaking, GDC’s lawyers warned in the suit.
“DOT’s breach has jeopardized the project, threatened the livelihoods of the countless workers employed in its construction, endangered passengers who must rely on decaying, century-old rail infrastructure, and undermined the United States’ reputation as a reliable contracting party,” the suit reads. “This court’s intervention is urgently needed to redress these breaches.”
What’s at stake with Gateway project?
The Gateway Tunnel project will replace two more than 110-year-old tubes that carry hundreds of Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains between New York’s Penn Station and New Jersey, under the Hudson River each weekday.
It is intended to improve service and double capacity by replacing tunnels that have deteriorated over a century of use — especially the River North Tunnel, which was also severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
GDC officials and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer first warned of the project’s impending halt during the commission’s board meeting late last month. While the GDC has been able to continue work on the effort since October by utilizing a line of credit, those funds have dried up and will not sustain construction past Friday.
They sounded the alarm that a prolonged pause in construction risks further snarling service and possibly forcing a shutdown, which could deliver a major blow to the regional and national economy. It would also endanger the tens of thousands of jobs the project is expected to create.
Schumer, the Democratic U.S. Senate Majority leader from New York, charged that Trump himself is responsible for “illegally” freezing the federal funding.
“As this lawsuit makes clear, President Trump has illegally frozen congressionally appropriated and contractually obligated funding for Gateway,” Schumer said in a statement. “This lawsuit would be unnecessary if President Trump did the right thing for New York and New Jersey and lifted his arbitrary freeze. Gateway is the most important infrastructure project in the country, and tens of thousands of union workers depend on it moving forward.”
The Trump administration has claimed that it is actually Schumer and the Democrats standing in the way of unfreezing the federal dollars.
