Workers resumed construction on the Gateway Tunnel project connecting New York and New Jersey this week after President Donald Trump released $235 million in remaining funds that had been frozen.
The Gateway Development Commission announced Tuesday that 1,000 workers will have their jobs restored as they return to the construction site, preparing to build two rail tunnels connecting the Garden State to New York City. The construction pause began on Feb. 6.
The infrastructure project has been a political football for several years, but federal funding for the tunnels has been under a microscope over the past couple of months as Trump declared the federal government would not “be responsible for ANY COST OVERRUNS” for the “future boondoggle.” But his administration nonetheless wired $175 million more in funds to the GDC.
“Our workers continued to hang tough through the construction pause, and together we will keep this project on track,” Tom Prendergast, CEO of the GDC, said. “I will do everything possible to restore consistent and reliable funding to deliver this project for our workers, our riders, and the national economy.”
The GDC maintained that it “need[s] every federal dollar accounted for in our grant and loan agreements to build this tunnel,” as Commissioner Alicia Glen on the New York side said.
The commission said the federal government has not yet restored the entirety of the $15 billion in funds that were paused on Oct. 1, 2025. The GDC said two major contract procurements will remain on hold until all of the $15 billion is unfrozen.
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Govs. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Kathy Hochul (D-NY), who together sued the administration over the funding freeze, each celebrated the release of funds last week as a win for their state’s workers. Sherrill wrote on X that “hardworking men and women can finally get back on the job.”
Hochul posted a video on social media of her speaking with a union shop steward connected to the project, writing, “Gateway is back on track and union workers like Laborers’ Local 731 Shop Steward Guido Riviecco are going back to work!”
