More Pieces of $16B Hudson River Rail Tunnel Come Together

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As work progresses on existing contracts of the $16.1-billion Hudson Tunnel Project between New York City and northern New Jersey, outgoing Gateway Development Commission (GDC) CEO Kris Kolluri said during the commission’s Oct. 11 meeting that seven of the nine contract packages will either be under construction or in procurement by the end of the year.

“A significant amount of work is happening on site and in our finance department,” Kolluri said.

The tunnel is planned to serve Amtrak and NJ Transit trains on the Northeast Corridor starting in 2035, at which time the existing North River Tunnel would undergo rehabilitation work.

Work on the Tonnelle Avenue bridge, which will carry road traffic over the New Jersey side approach to the rail tunnel, is about 48% complete, according to Hamed Nejad, GDC acting chief technical officer. He also told commissioners that 65% of secant piles for the Hudson Yards concrete casing on the New York side are complete, crews have begun underpinning the High Line, and 17,000 tons of soil have been excavated to date. 

In the river, Nejad said crews have been working on a test section of the riverbed for stabilization and are preparing to start deep soil mixing. 

On the procurement side, GDC issued a request for qualifications for construction of the center portion of the two-tube tunnel. The scope of that contract is planned to include boring two 7,250-ft-long tunnels under the Hudson River using a pair of pressurized face tunnel boring machines, lining the tunnels with precast concrete segmental tunnel lining with a 25 ft, 2 in.-inside diameter, placing precast inverts in the under-river tunnel and the 5,100-ft-long New Jersey side of the tunnel, constructing nine cross passages and other work. Responses are due by Dec. 6, and Gateway leaders say they aim to have a contractor selected in 2026 to complete the work by the spring of 2029. 

GDC has planned to build the tunnel in three segments, along with other work separated into additional contract packages. In August, the commission picked Schiavone Dragados Lane JV for a $465.6-million contract to build the New Jersey side of the tunnel. And earlier this year, it shortlisted three teams for the New York side. The shortlisted firms’ responses are due next month.

The commission also plans to release an RFQ for surface alignment work on the New Jersey side in November and order TBMs in December, Kolluri said. 

The meeting was Kolluri’s last as CEO of the commission after submitting his resignation over the summer after securing the final piece of funding for the project. Kolluri stayed on until this month at the request of commissioners, who have launched a search committee to find his replacement. Commissioners provided no updates on the search at the meeting, but thanked Kolluri for his work leading the project.