$16B Hudson Tunnel Could Halt Without Trump Cash

Federal support for the Hudson Tunnel Project is set to run out within days, raising the prospect that construction on the $16 billion rail scheme will be brought to a halt across New York, New Jersey and beneath the Hudson River.

In a statement issued on 27 January, the Gateway Development Commission said federal payments had not resumed and warned that contractors would soon begin shutting down active work. The commission said construction would start winding down immediately and could stop altogether by 6 February.

“We have exhausted every available option to keep construction moving,” said GDC chief executive Thomas Prendergast. “Without the federal funding that was promised and contractually committed, we will be forced to pause work on this project, at significant cost to taxpayers and workers.”

The Hudson Tunnel Project had been moving steadily towards full tunnel excavation. 

On the New Jersey side, tunnel boring machine components are already staged at the Tonnelle Avenue site in North Bergen, with portal and launch box works under way. 

Slurry walls have been installed at access shafts on both sides of the river, while ground stabilisation has continued beneath the Hudson itself.

In Manhattan, recent progress included cutting into the bulkhead at the western end of the Hudson Yards Concrete Casing, physically linking new trench works to sections already built that will feed into the bored tunnels. All of those activities now face suspension.

Roughly 70 per cent of the project cost, around $12 billion, was to be met by federal grants, with the balance covered by loans repaid by New York, New Jersey and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The commission said federal disbursements from both grant and loan programmes have been frozen since 1 October 2025.

RELATED: Why Trump Terminated $16bn Hudson River Project

The initial pause was linked to a Federal Transit Administration review of the commission’s disadvantaged business enterprise programme, before being widened to include all federal funding streams.

“This tunnel is under construction right now, with workers on site and contracts in place,” said New Jersey congressman Josh Gottheimer. “If the Trump administration doesn’t release the funds it already approved, construction will stop, jobs will be lost and costs will skyrocket.”

More than $1 billion has already been spent. Carlo A. Scissura of the New York Building Congress described the looming shutdown as “a four-alarm fire”, warning that nearly 1,000 union workers could be idled and vast sums wasted.

The White House has rejected responsibility, with a spokesperson telling The Wall Street Journal that Senate Democrats were blocking a wider agreement. New Jersey officials dispute that account.

“This is not just about a pause,” Prendergast said. “Every day of delay increases costs, increases risk and brings us closer to a failure of infrastructure that the entire country relies on.”

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