Gateway commission lets contract for Hudson Tunnel boring

The Gateway Development Commission (GDC) has awarded a $1.3 billion contract for the Hudson Tunnel project construction package that requires boring the section of the new tunnel tubes under the Hudson River. 

Known as Package 1C, the portion of work was contracted to a joint venture encompassing Traylor Bros. Inc., Walsh Group and Skanska AB. 

To begin in the coming months, the work involves the longest stretch of tunnel boring for the Hudson Tunnel project. The contractor will build two new tunnel tubes, each about 7,250 feet long, under the Hudson River from Weehawken, New Jersey, to the west side of Manhattan. The tubes will be bored using two new, mixed-use tunnel boring machines. 

The project also includes constructing nine cross passages connecting the two tunnel tubes; stabilizing the ground around a section of Hudson Bergen light-rail tracks that the new tunnel will pass under; and building a permanent underground support system to strengthen a section of the Willow Avenue Bridge. 

The GDC now has awarded six of the 10 construction packages that make up the Hudson Tunnel project.

“More than half of the construction packages that make up the project are now in progress or completed, and we have now awarded contracts for all the tunnel boring needed to build the new tunnel tubes,” said GDC CEO Tom Prendergast in a press release.