Gateway Development Commission awards construction tunnel boring contract for Hudson Tunnel Project

The Gateway Development Commission (GDC) has awarded Traylor/Walsh/Skanska JV the contract for the Hudson Tunnel Project (HTP) construction package. The JV will be responsible for boring the section of the new tunnel tubes under the Hudson River and installing the tunnel liner and floor. Known as Package 1C: The Hudson River Tunnel Section, the GDC says the work is expected to begin in the coming months. 

With the award of this contract, GDC notes six of the 10 construction packages that make up the HTP are now in progress or completed. Together with Package 1A: The Palisades Tunnel and Package 1B: The Manhattan Tunnel, which are already under construction, contracts for all the tunnel boring and construction of the entire heavy civil portion of the Hudson Tunnel Project are now awarded or in progress. 

“Faster commutes and thousands of good paying jobs—that is the promise of the Gateway Tunnel and why we fought so hard to keep this project moving forward,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. “Advancing this critical contract is yet another big step towards realizing the immense opportunity of Gateway and delivering one of the nation's most essential infrastructure projects.” 

Under Package 1C, GDC’s contractor will build two new tunnel tubes, each approximately 7,250 feet long, under the Hudson River from the Hudson County Access Shaft in Weehawken, N.J., to the 12th Avenue Access Shaft on the West Side of Manhattan. The tubes will be bored using two new, mixed-use tunnel boring machines that are designed to tunnel through the mixed conditions in the ground under the Hudson River, including rock, soft soil and the block of stabilized earth created by the Hudson River Ground Stabilization project. 

“Today's action by the GDC makes it clear that the Gateway Tunnel is back on track after we stopped President [Donald] Trump from illegally blocking funding to the project,” said New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill. “It moves one of the most critical pieces of this project forward, and it is another big step towards delivering on the most urgent infrastructure project in the nation for both the tens of thousands of workers who will build it and the hundreds of thousands of riders who rely on this connection every day.” 

In addition to tunnel boring, the project includes:  

• Construction of nine cross passages connecting the two tunnel tubes.  

• Stabilizing the ground around a section of Hudson Bergen Light Rail tracks that the new tunnel will pass under. 

• Constructing a permanent underground support system to strengthen a section of the Willow Avenue Bridge between Weehawken and Hoboken.  

The GDC says Traylor/Walsh/Skanska JV was selected following a competitive process and proposal review by an evaluation panel consisting of technical experts and representatives from GDC, the state of New York, New Jersey Transit, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Amtrak. The contract price for this project is $1.29 billion.  

The GDC Board also approved the Market Case Estimate for Package 1C: The Hudson River Tunnel Section and authorized GDC CEO Tom Prendergast to issue a notice to proceed to Traylor/Walsh/Skanska JV. 

“Awarding the Package 1C: Hudson River Tunnel Section contract represents two significant milestones on the way to delivering the Hudson Tunnel Project: more than half of the construction packages that make up the project are now in progress or completed, and we have now awarded contracts for all the tunnel boring needed to build the new tunnel tubes,” Prendergast said. “It has taken years of planning and tens of thousands of hours of labor to reach this point. We’re firing on all cylinders now and the progress we are making is plain to see at our construction sites on both sides of the river. It is critical we maintain this momentum going forward.”