The giant machines that will bore a train tunnel beneath the Hudson River connecting Manhattan to New Jersey are being assembled. The $16 billion tunnel is one of the largest and costliest mass transit projects in modern U.S. history. It was briefly halted over the winter, when President Donald Trump froze funding.
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A worker stands on a crane while securing exposed rock along a wall at the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J. James Starace, chief of program delivery for the Gateway Development Commission, speaks during a media tour of the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J.
Workers operate at the site of the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J. A part of the Tunnel Boring Machine is seen at the site of the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J.
James Starace, chief of program delivery for the Gateway Development Commission, speaks during a media tour of the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J. The giant drills that will bore tunnels under the Hudson River for trains traveling to NYC are being assembled across the river in New Jersey.
A worker stands on a crane while securing exposed rock along a wall at the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J. A worker stands on a crane while securing exposed rock along a wall at the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J.
James Starace, chief of program delivery for the Gateway Development Commission, speaks during a media tour of the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J. James Starace, chief of program delivery for the Gateway Development Commission, speaks during a media tour of the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J.
Workers operate at the site of the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J. Workers operate at the site of the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J.
A part of the Tunnel Boring Machine is seen at the site of the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J. A part of the Tunnel Boring Machine is seen at the site of the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J.
James Starace, chief of program delivery for the Gateway Development Commission, speaks during a media tour of the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J. James Starace, chief of program delivery for the Gateway Development Commission, speaks during a media tour of the Palisades Tunnel Project, part of the Gateway Program, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in North Bergen, N.J.
to New Jersey was built more than a century ago, workers toiled with picks and shovels from each side until eventually meeting in the middle. Giant drilling machines nearly the length of two football fields armed with cutters harder than diamonds will chew through dense rock. A crew of about 40 will oversee a conveyor system hauling out debris as well as equipment to install the tunnel’s curved concrete lining.
“This is a fully automated, underground factory,” said James Starace, chief of program delivery for the Gateway Development Commission, a public agency formed by New York and New Jersey that’s undertaking the tunnel project. Wearing a hardhat and yellow safety vest, Starace stood Tuesday in a trench cut into the hills across the river from New York City.
Behind him rosewhere, if all goes as planned, by 2035 trains will speed in and out of the tunnel, easing a bottleneck on the busiest passenger rail corridor in the nation. The tunnel-boring machines arrived “like Lego pieces” from Germany in nearly 100 different components, said Hamed Nejad, the project’s chief engineer. Outside the tunnel’s future entrance, sparks flew as a team of welders fused pieces of the massive cutterheads.
Danny Pearlstein, a spokesperson for the transit advocacy group Riders Alliance, said America has grown unaccustomed to building megaprojects at this scale, which has contributed to the cost.
“What’s astonishing about Gateway isn’t the size and scope of the project,” Pearlstein said, “but that it’s taken this long to get only so far. ” The machines are expected to take about a year to grind through the first section in the New Jersey Palisades, which is made of tough volcanic rock, once digging starts later this year, according to Starace. That’s about 30 feet of tunnel a day. Other machines will dig under the riverbed.
In full, the new tunnel with two train tracks inside will run almost 2.5 miles . The original two-tracked tunnel, damaged by saltwater during Superstorm Sandy, will be renovated. The ambitious project received key approvals and funding under the Biden administration, but nearly ground to a halt a few months ago.the administration to release the funds. Money has continued flowing as a lawsuit brought by New York and New Jersey against the federal government plays out.
Marcelo is a general assignment reporter in the NYC bureau. He previously wrote for AP Fact Check and before that was based in Boston, where he focused on race and immigration.
New Jersey New York City New York General News Domestic News Waterways Politics Manhattan Danny Pearlstein James Starace U.S. News Philip Marcelo Science U.S. News
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