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Two of the largest infrastructure initiatives in the United States were still moving forward this week despite the battles over a government shutdown surrounding them.
Oct. 2, 2025, 5:02 p.m. ET
Early on Thursday, a towboat pushed a barge next to a floating dock in the Hudson River off Manhattan’s West Side. Cranes roared to life; workers arrived for their shifts.
It was the start of just another day on the Gateway project, a $16 billion rail tunnel being built between New Jersey and Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, at the center of the critical Northeast Corridor. At the same time, across the city, work was underway to prepare for the start of construction in a few months on the long-awaited expansion of the Second Avenue subway line.
Years in the making and dependent on federal funds, the projects — two of the largest infrastructure initiatives in the United States — were still moving forward this week despite finding themselves in a familiar role: political football.
On Wednesday, as a federal government shutdown began, the Trump administration said it would withhold essential money — $18 billion that had already been approved. The Transportation Department cited a review over diversity, equity and inclusion requirements in contracts for the projects, and said the review had been delayed because workers had been furloughed.
The targeting of those two critical transportation projects, and the message it sent, was not lost on elected officials in New York. The Trump administration had made the pain personal for two of the president’s political foes from his home state: Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, and Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader.
“This is the same old Trump: At a moment that calls for leadership and bipartisan negotiation, he reverts to chaos and retribution,” Mr. Schumer said on Thursday. “Trying to stop the very popular and vital Gateway tunnel and Second Avenue subway megaprojects only screws New York and New Jersey commuters, threatens countless construction jobs and stymies our entire economy.”
Whether or not the move turns out to be primarily a political maneuver, the uncertain moment was the latest chapter in a long, tortuous history for both projects, especially the effort to upgrade a 115-year-old rail tunnel under the Hudson River that ferries hundreds of thousands of daily travelers on Amtrak and NJ Transit trains.
For more than three decades and under at least four different project names, a parade of state and federal elected officials have pledged, once and for all, to fix the rail congestion and aging infrastructure at the heart of the Northeast Corridor.
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The most promising effort, known as Access to the Region’s Core, or ARC, was canceled in 2010 by former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey after work had already begun to double the number of trains that could enter Manhattan from his state each day. (Construction on the two new tunnels had been expected to be completed in 2018.)
Mr. Christie said at the time that New Jersey could no longer afford the project’s rising cost, then estimated to range from $11 billion to more than $14 billion, though federal and state funding had been arranged and work was underway.
The project was soon revived under a new name, Gateway, and was approved during the administration of President Barack Obama. It was deemed the nation’s most critical and pressing infrastructure project, especially after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 sent millions of gallons of saltwater into the tunnel. The Obama administration pledged to pay for half of it, with the total cost then estimated at $13 billion.
But Mr. Trump pulled federal support for Gateway shortly into his first term, as work was getting started. Supporters of the project, as well as Mr. Christie, hoped it was just a negotiation tactic. But Mr. Trump did not relent and federal funding was not recommitted until President Joseph R. Biden Jr. took office.
The Biden administration also approved federal assistance for the expansion of the Second Avenue subway line, awarding a $3.4 billion grant in 2023. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that operates the city’s transit system, approved a nearly $2 billion construction contract this past August that aimed to began digging a new tunnel in 2027 to extend the Q subway line to two stations in East Harlem.
For a century, the Second Avenue subway has been mired by broken promises and false starts, including at least three groundbreaking ceremonies with various elected officials. When the project got underway at last and the first phase was completed about a decade ago, Andrew M. Cuomo, then the governor of New York, used it to polish his image.
Representative Adriano Espaillat, a Democrat who represents the neighborhood, lamented on Thursday that politics had been injected into an infrastructure effort that would benefit everyone.
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“Do they tell you, ‘You’re a Republican, you can’t go in?’” Mr. Espaillat said at a news conference at a community information center for the project in East Harlem. “No, everybody goes in.”
The Transportation Department’s review would ostensibly include infrastructure works nationwide, but Trump administration officials called attention only to Gateway and the Second Avenue subway in a news release and social media posts. In formal letters to the agencies behind the works informing them of the reviews, department officials suggested the projects were among many under evaluation.
It was unclear how soon the suspension of federal funding could affect progress toward construction of the Hudson tunnel.
Work has been underway across five sites, on both sides of the Hudson and out in the water, where crews on barges have been hardening the river’s bottom to prepare for boring of the tunnel’s two single-track tubes. The machines that would bore the tunnels are being built in Germany and were scheduled to begin digging eastward from New Jersey next year.
The Gateway Development Commission, which is overseeing the project, has enough money on hand to continue work, but it is unclear for how long.
The Transportation Department announced the pause on both reimbursements and future money on the first of the month, around the time that the Gateway Development Commission typically submits bills to the department for repayment. Because of the government shutdown, the department said, the employees who handle the payments were furloughed.
Construction on the new tunnel is expected to take another decade, with rehabilitation work on the old tunnel expected to be complete three years later, in 2038 — roughly 45 years after a new tunnel was first proposed.
Patrick McGeehan and Anusha Bayya contributed reporting.
Matthew Haag is a Times reporter covering the New York City economy and the intersection of real estate and politics in the region.
