Gateway court order frees funding, though crews stay on hold

Federal funding was released Friday for the stalled Hudson River rail tunnel project as President Donald Trump’s administration abided by a federal court order.

The Gateway Development Commission, the project’s overseer, reported “an initial disbursement of $30 million” and expected to receive $205 million in total, according to a statement it issued in late afternoon.

“Construction remains paused for now, and we are working with our contractors to plan how to deploy these funds in the most effective way and get workers back on the job to resume some construction as soon as possible,” the statement read.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit late Thursday declined to block a judicial order to release the congressionally approved funding for the nation’s biggest infrastructure project. The decision, in a lawsuit filed by New York and New Jersey, marked the first time Gateway would receive any federal money since Trump paused its distribution in October.

Roughly 1,000 workers were laid off on Feb. 6 and four construction sites shut down as the commission ran out of money.

“This is just the first step,” Gov. Mikie Sherrill wrote in an X.com post on Friday evening. “I’m not going to stop fighting until we get every dollar we’re owed and this project is complete.”

State officials had had no certainty that Trump would comply with the order. At a news conference in Secaucus before the funds were available, Sherrill, surrounded by labor leaders and out-of-work construction crews, said Trump had “illegally” stopped the funding, and it was “way past time” for him to thaw it.

Sherrill said the payment was due at 1 p.m. Friday.

The funds are critical to re-starting the $16 billion project to rehabilitate and construct Hudson River passenger rail tunnels linking New Jersey and Manhattan.

Gateway is vital to the Northeast Corridor, the nation’s busiest passenger rail route. Hurricane Sandy flooding in 2012 damaged the sole century-old link, and while Amtrak, its owner, says the tunnel is safe, it’s increasingly unreliable. Should the tunnel become unusable, Boston-Washington, D.C., rail travel would become impossible, and NJ Transit commuters would lose transportation crucial to New York City employment.