The Gateway Development Commission has awarded a $1.29 billion contract for the central Hudson River segment of the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel project, filling the last major gap in the project’s heavy civil tunnel program. The award also completes the acquisition of what officials describe as the “core and shell” of the intersection.
Approved on April 27, the contract for Package 1C: Hudson River Tunnel Section was awarded to a joint venture of Traylor Bros. Inc., Walsh Construction Co. II LLC and Skanska USA Civil.
The work covers the construction of two parallel tunnel tubes, each approximately 7,250 feet long, extending beneath the Hudson River from the Hudson County Access Shaft in Weehawken, NJ to the 12th Avenue Shaft on Manhattan’s West Side.
The first construction activities, including jet grouting near the Hudson County access shaft, utility relocation and ground improvement under the Hudson Bergen light rail corridor and preparatory work to shore up the Willow Avenue Bridge, are expected to begin this year, while tunnel boring is still years away, a Gateway Development Commission spokesman said.
Gateway Development Commission CEO Tom Prendergast said the award means “more than half of the construction packages that make up the project are now underway or complete and we have now awarded contracts for all the tunnels required to build the new tunnel tubes.”
With this latest award, six of the project’s 10 construction packages are already underway or have been completed, marking a transition from early works to full-scale tunneling across the programme.
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The Hudson River Tunnel links the NJ and Manhattan sections
Package 1C fills the central gap between two advanced segments, linking tunnel work already underway on either side of the Hudson.
On the New Jersey side, Schiavone Dragados Lane JV has a $465.6 million contract to drill approximately 5,100 feet of twin tunnels through the Palisades Sill, with two Herrenknecht TBMs ready for launch at the Tonnelle Avenue site in North Bergen.
On the Manhattan side, a contract valued at more than $1.2 billion was awarded to Frontier-Kemper Constructors/Tutor Perini Corp. JV, which covers the construction of twin tunnels connecting the future river crossing to the Hudson Yards shell and a permanent ventilation shaft at 12th Avenue.
Together, the three segments form a continuous two-track rail tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan, the centerpiece of a larger effort to expand capacity in the Northeast Corridor.
The section of the river presents the most complex geotechnical conditions of the project. Unlike the hard rock excavation being carried out in the Palisades, the Hudson River Crossing will go through a combination of soft soils, rock and pre-treated soil, requiring purpose-built mixed face TBM machines.
The diagram shows the profile of the section of the Hudson River Tunnel where the twin tubes run from the Palisades in New Jersey under the river to Manhattan, crossing mixed soil and rock and a stabilized river bed area, with nine cross passages connecting the tunnels.
Diagram courtesy of Gateway Development Commission
The contractor will also drill through a reinforced riverbed block created under the Hudson River Soil Stabilization Project. In addition to the twin tubes, the contract includes the construction of nine crossings, soil stabilization under the Hudson Bergen light rail infrastructure and installation of a permanent underground support system under the Willow Avenue bridge corridor.
Separately, Gateway’s board also approved an owner-controlled insurance program covering the current award and two future construction packages: the New Jersey surface alignment and an additional segment on the Manhattan side, which consolidates risk coverage on upcoming work rather than requiring each contractor to purchase insurance independently.
The New Jersey Surface Alignment contract, which will build surface and elevated track connections linking the new tunnel to New Jersey’s Northeast Corridor, remains the only major civil package tied to tunnels not yet awarded.
The 1C package award follows a months-long federal funding dispute that stalled reimbursements, inactive contractors and delayed procurement of major packages, including the river segment.
More than $254 million in overdue federal payments were released through litigation filed by New York and New Jersey, restoring cash flow and allowing Gateway to resume full construction and move forward with pending acquisitions.
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New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said the award “makes it clear that the Gateway Tunnel is back on track,” adding that it advances “the nation’s most urgent infrastructure project for both the tens of thousands of workers who will build it and the hundreds of thousands of motorists who depend on this connection every day.”
Across the river, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the contract will help deliver “faster commutes and thousands of good-paying jobs” while advancing one of the nation’s most critical infrastructure investments.
The Hudson Tunnel project is the centerpiece of the broader Gateway program, which aims to expand and modernize the busiest section of the Northeast Corridor, with approximately 800,000 daily passenger trips.
The new tunnel will complement the existing North River Tunnel, a 1910-era crossing damaged during Superstorm Sandy, allowing it to be decommissioned for full rehabilitation once the new tubes enter service before the project’s target date of 2035 without disrupting corridor traffic.
