Mark Lennihan/AP Photo
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, center, gives a media tour about progress on the East Side Access, a train tunnel that will connect rail yards in Queens with Grand Central Terminal, May 27, 2021, in New York.
If New York, New Jersey, and Amtrak could count on any promises from Joe Biden, the country’s top rail enthusiast, it was Gateway, the long-delayed and much-maligned multibillion-dollar Northeast Corridor modernization project. Getting the leaky, creaky Hudson River rail tunnel on a path to replacement and refurbishment is finally in sight, after the four-years-long drama unleashed by lapsed New Yorker Donald Trump. With the final environmental impact statement and record of decision finalized, the two states should have been able to concentrate on the next hurdles, like securing federal funding, getting requests for proposals out the door, and breaking ground on the tunnel itself in the next several years.
After ultraconservative Republicans, who’d prefer to see metro New York float off into the Atlantic rather than cough up another dollar for the country’s key economic engine, held back Gateway for so long, it was a moment to rejoice. But perhaps everyone shouldn’t have counted on things going smoothly, given the presence of one of the biggest egos in the American political firmament. If the president wasn’t having enough trouble with Joe Manchin or Mitch McConnell or Ron DeSantis or Brian Kemp or any number of other Republican ideologues or appeasement-minded Democrats, along comes the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo has decided that now is the time to unleash his best impression of a red-state infrastructure obstructionist, by threatening to undo the entire project days after Biden revived it. Whether Cuomo is engaging in performance art or is determined to muck up the works for his own benefit, or both, he has selected the wrong target.
In late May, Gateway finally received the approvals it needed to receive federal funding, though that still needs to be secured. The tunnel project, which is only one aspect of the mammoth program, is eligible for a variety of assists like the Department of Transportation’s Capital Investment Program’s Core Capacity grant, as well as opportunities provided by the Biden infrastructure plan (provided the president can move it through Congress). One proposed program in that package would allocate $25 billion to “projects of national significance” that have “tangible benefits to the regional or national economy but are too large or complex for existing funding programs.” (The Treasury Department identified 40 such projects in 2016.) Other prospective pots of funding could come from transit expansion proposals or modernization of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, both components of the Biden plan. The Gateway project also requires a new Federal Transit Administration rating to determine eligibility for one of its grant programs.
BANNER
The conundrum that Gateway faces is that New York and New Jersey have to be very specific about their funding commitments in their grant applications, which must be filed this summer. Cuomo’s jockeying for position on New York’s already-specified 25 percent may actually create more delays. (New Jersey has pledged another 25 percent of the nearly $12 billion price tag for the tunnels alone.)
Once funding is in place, Gateway officials can proceed to the time-consuming public procurement process that will specify the contractual obligations and other aspects of how the project gets built, while the Army Corps of Engineers must deliver a dredging and mitigation permit, which is expected later this year. Ideally, construction, which involves building a new tunnel and shoring up the existing tunnels, could begin in three years or less.
However, Cuomo, who once patrolled the Hurricane Sandy–damaged tunnel and blasted interference from Trump in Gateway, merits all the criticism being hurled in his general direction. The issue he’s decided to broach is decidedly out of his depth: how the repairs themselves should proceed. He supports an alternative construction method, one endorsed by former Trump transportation secretary Elaine Chao, that would allow the old tunnels to remain in service while the work gets done, presumably in off-hours nights and weekends.
The real point of Cuomo’s gambit is this: If federal officials dismiss his request, he plans to withhold his state’s portion of Gateway funding—a threat that has exasperated New Jersey officials to no end.
For good measure, he has called the current Gateway refurbishment plan “stupid.”
Cuomo is looking back to how he approached the Canarsie Tunnel/L line subway tunnel, which stayed in operation during repairs rather than shut down entirely. He endorsed that as a cost-saving measure, as well as a way to be spared complaints from legions of commuters. Both projects do involve tunnels, but the similarities end there. The Canarsie Tunnel project has a very different profile than the Hudson River plan; the federal environmental statement explored this in depth and came out on the side of ending service in the tunnels during the reconstruction.
Unlike the Canarsie Tunnel, the Hudson River rail tunnel needs a new modernized track bed. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) hung new wires on the walls of the subway tunnel, but in the Hudson River tunnel, the walls and the liner behind them need to be completely replaced to add a walkway for maintenance and emergencies. Unlike the subway cables, higher-voltage cables power the trains in the rail tunnel, and must be secured in a “fire-rated and impact- and blast-proof” system.
One of the most damning of the indictments of the Canarsie Tunnel fixes that Cuomo supported appeared in Railway Age last year. Observing that Cuomo “is not a railway expert,” the periodical noted, “The Canarsie Tunnel repair, by some accounts, could last up to 40 years, but the original plan, albeit more costly and service-disruptive, was designed to last 100 years.” Trying the same concept with the Hudson River tunnel would be even more of a missed opportunity.
The impulse for a governor battered by sexual harassment allegations and a nursing home death toll scandal to focus on a flawed “solution” to add to his roster of infrastructure wins (the L line subway tunnel, Second Avenue subway line, and the Tappan Zee/Mario Cuomo Bridge renamed for his father) is unsurprising. This eleventh-hour push to generate “good” press and salvage a possible 2022 re-election bid for a fourth term (as well as his political legacy) does not help the Democratic Party build anything back better. In an era when everything is falling apart, Andrew Cuomo’s insistence on a cheap, quick infrastructure fix is one more disturbing and unsavory aspect of early 21st-century American political culture. And opposing the Gateway tunnel project, especially in the manner that he has, is the most Trumpian thing he could do.
This article is part of our ongoing series on sustainable mobility, transportation, and climate.
This post has been updated.
