Westfair’s Westchester County Business Journal has learned that construction work on the Gateway Tunnel project that includes the Hudson Tunnel under the Hudson River was remaining halted for a few days at least despite an order from a federal judge in New York requiring the Trump administration to unfreeze funding for the $16 billion project. The administration had been refusing to release funds allocated by Congress since October. When the existing money that had been paid ran out on Feb. 6 construction work was ordered to be stopped. The administration on Feb. 8 filed an appeal of the judge’s order that funding be restored.
Some news reports had indicated that construction work would resume on Feb. 9, but that was not the case.
The temporary restraining order requiring the administration to release funding was granted by U.S. District Judge Jeanette Vargas in the Southern District of New York on Feb. 6. She ruled in a lawsuit filed by New York and New Jersey to force funding to be restored. The defendant, the Trump administration’s Department of Transportation, did not respond to questions from the Business Journal asking whether it had complied with the judge’s order or planned to file an appeal. The appeal that it did file on Feb. 8, however, provided an answer.
The Business Journal learned that management of the tunnel project has been in contact with the administration but did not have an indication on when or whether funding would be resumed.
The judge found that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit would “suffer irreparable harm” if the Trump administration continued to withhold the funding for the project.
“Plaintiffs have adequately shown that the public interest would be harmed by a delay in a critical infrastructure project,” the judge wrote. The judge ordered both the plaintiffs and the defendants in the lawsuit to tell her in a joint letter to be filed no later than Feb. 11 how they will be moving forward.
It has been previously reported Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer last month that he was prepared to drop his freeze on the funding under the condition that Schumer agrees to rename New York’s Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles International Airport after Trump.
The president told reporters aboard Air Force One on Feb. 6 that it was Schumer’s idea to rename Penn Station to “Trump station.”
Schumer not only dismissed Trump’s claim but also accused the president of lying about the details of their conversation.
“Absolute lie. He knows it. Everyone knows it. Only one man can restart the project and he can restart it with the snap of his fingers,” Schumer said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of New York called the judge’s issuing of a temporary restraining order against the administration a critical victory for workers and commuters.
“I am grateful the court acted quickly to block this senseless funding freeze, which threatened to derail a project our entire region depends on,” James said. “The Hudson Tunnel Project is one of the most important infrastructure projects in the nation, and we will keep fighting to ensure construction can continue without unnecessary federal interference.”
