This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
12/29/2025
Gateway Development Commission officials on Dec. 15 announced factory testing has been completed on the first two tunnel boring machines for the Hudson River Tunnel project.
The project calls for construction of 9 miles of passenger-rail track between New York and New Jersey, including close to 5 miles of boring for a two-tube tunnel under the Hudson River. The project also includes rehabilitation of the 1910-era North River Tunnel.
When completed, there will be four tracks between the two states, where now there are just two. The existing tunnels are the most congested section of the Northeast Corridor, through which 450 Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains traverse each day.
Custom-built for the project, the boring machines will now be shipped to New Jersey, where crews will assemble them at the base of the Palisades in North Bergen, said GDC officials in a press release.
Components of the first machine will arrive in January, and tunnel boring will begin in spring 2026. The two machines will bore about a mile of parallel tunnels on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, installing a concrete tunnel liner behind them as they go. Each machine will construct 30 feet of new tunnel per day, GDC officials said.
The Hudson River Tunnel project is a core part of the Gateway program, a series of critical passenger-rail infrastructure projects on the Northeast Corridor.