Early on Thursday, a towboat pushed a barge next to a floating dock in the Hudson River off Manhattan’s West Side. Cranes roared to life; workers arrived for their shifts.
It was the start of just another day on the Gateway project, a $16 billion rail tunnel being built between New Jersey and Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, at the center of the critical Northeast Corridor. At the same time, across the city, work was underway to prepare for the start of construction in a few months on the long-awaited expansion of the Second Avenue subway line.
Years in the making and dependent on federal funds, the projects — two of the largest infrastructure initiatives in the United States — were still moving forward this week despite finding themselves in a familiar role: political football.
On Wednesday, as a federal government shutdown began, the Trump administration said it would withhold essential money — $18 billion that had already been approved. The Transportation Department cited a review over diversity, equity and inclusion requirements in contracts for the projects, and said the review had been delayed because workers had been furloughed.
The targeting of those two critical transportation projects, and the message it sent, was not lost on elected officials in New York. The Trump administration had made the pain personal for two of the president’s political foes from his home state: Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, and Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader.
“This is the same old Trump: At a moment that calls for leadership and bipartisan negotiation, he reverts to chaos and retribution,” Mr. Schumer said on Thursday. “Trying to stop the very popular and vital Gateway tunnel and Second Avenue subway megaprojects only screws New York and New Jersey commuters, threatens countless construction jobs and stymies our entire economy.”
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The post Politics Threaten a Crucial N.Y. Area Tunnel Project. Again. appeared first on New York Times.
