The Gateway Development Commission awarded a $1.29 billion contract on April 27, 2026, to bore the under-river heart of the new Hudson Tunnel — the final major tunneling package in a project that would give the Northeast Corridor a redundant rail crossing between New Jersey and Manhattan for the first time in more than a century.

The award, approved at the commission’s Newark board meeting, went to a joint venture of Traylor Bros., Walsh Construction and Skanska USA Civil. Designated Package 1C, it covers the longest and most technically demanding stretch of the new crossing.

What the contract builds

Package 1C calls for boring two parallel tubes, each roughly 7,250 feet long, from a Hudson County access shaft in Weehawken, New Jersey, beneath the river to Manhattan’s West Side. The work includes installing the tunnel liner and floor — roughly 14,500 precast segments forming more than 2,400 rings — and the cross passages that connect the two tubes at intervals for safety.

The boring will be done with custom mixed-ground tunnel boring machines built to handle the variable conditions under the Hudson, which range from weathered rock to soft soil. Components of the first machine have arrived in North Bergen, where crews finished a watertight slurry wall for the access shaft and cleared the Tonnelle Avenue bridge and utility relocations to make room for TBM assembly.

A century-old bottleneck

The Hudson Tunnel Project is the centerpiece of the broader Gateway Program, the multi-decade effort to expand rail capacity between Newark and New York. Today, all Amtrak and NJ Transit trains crossing the Hudson funnel through a single two-track tunnel — the North River Tunnel, opened in 1910 and badly damaged by saltwater during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The new tunnel would add a second two-track crossing, allowing the old tubes to be taken out of service one at a time for full rehabilitation without severing the corridor. The combined cost is roughly $16 billion.

With the Package 1C award, six of the project’s 10 construction packages are now underway or complete. Earlier awards covered the Palisades and Manhattan tunnel segments and a New Jersey rail approach; with the river section let, all of the heavy civil contracts tied to boring and core structure are in hand or in progress.

Funding fights in the background

Gateway has advanced under persistent federal-funding uncertainty. The Trump administration moved to freeze money for the project, but a federal appeals court allowed an order to take effect requiring the administration to resume funding — at least for now — and work has continued. The litigation is a reminder that, like congestion pricing and the MTA capital plan, Gateway’s timeline is tethered to federal politics as much as to engineering.

Why it matters

The two-track North River Tunnel is the single most important — and most fragile — piece of rail infrastructure in the Northeast. A failure in either tube would throttle the busiest passenger-rail corridor in the country, with cascading effects on the regional economy. Letting the final boring contract moves Gateway from procurement into the phase that defines it: digging. If the TBMs launch on schedule from North Bergen, the project crosses from promise into the river itself.

Verification

  • $1.29B Package 1C awarded April 27, 2026 to Traylor/Walsh/Skanska JV; two ~7,250-ft tubes Weehawken to Manhattan — Engineering News-Record
  • ~14,500 segments / 2,400+ rings; custom mixed-ground TBMs; six of 10 packages underway — Construction Dive
  • TBM assembly and slurry-wall / Tonnelle Avenue progress in North Bergen — Underground Infrastructure
  • ~$16B project cost; new tunnel plus North River Tunnel rehab — Skanska press release
  • Federal appeals court allowed order requiring resumed Gateway funding — Construction Dive

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Hudson Tunnel Project?
It is the centerpiece of the Gateway Program: a new two-track rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan's Penn Station, plus rehabilitation of the existing 1910 North River Tunnel damaged by Superstorm Sandy. The combined cost is roughly $16 billion.
What does the $1.29 billion contract cover?
Package 1C covers boring the longest stretch of the new tubes under the river — two parallel tubes about 7,250 feet long from a Weehawken access shaft to Manhattan's West Side — plus the tunnel liner and floor.
Who won the contract?
A joint venture of Traylor Bros., Walsh Construction and Skanska USA Civil, approved by the Gateway Development Commission at its April 27, 2026 board meeting.
How far along is the overall project?
With this award, six of the project's 10 construction packages are now underway or complete, and tunnel boring machine assembly is advancing in North Bergen, New Jersey.