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The New Jersey Transit board recently approved funding for the final design phase of the Trans-Hudson Express (THE) Tunnel, part of the more than $7 billion Access to the Region's Core (ARC) project that will expand passenger-rail capacity between New York and New Jersey.  

The board authorized up to $124 million for The Partnership — a joint venture between Parsons Brinckerhoff, STV Inc. and DMJM Harris — to complete final design work. The firms already are conducting preliminary engineering for the project. Final design work will begin once the Federal Transit Administration approves the project's Environmental Impact Statement. A decision is expected this fall.

Construction on the project — which calls for building two single-track commuter-rail tunnels beneath the Hudson River and a station beneath 34th Street in Manhattan connecting to Penn Station — could begin in 2009 and be complete in 2017.
 
Last week, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority approved a toll-adjustment plan that dedicates $1.25 billion to the ARC project. The state of New Jersey and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey already have committed $3 billion.