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Vote coming on federal funding for NY rail tunnel
The Journal of Commerce, October 17, 2007
by Peter T. Leach
The commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will vote Thursday on whether to accept $100 million in federal funding to complete an environmental impact study of the proposed cross-harbor rail tunnel that would connect Jersey City, N.J., and Brooklyn.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., a long-time backer of the tunnel, secured the funding for the project in the 2005 SAFETEA-LU transportation bill, but the port authority has not previously moved to accept funding for the project.
The environmental study has been funded by the City of New York since 2000, but the city was never envisioned being the sponsor of the project, according to Amy Rutkin, Nadler's chief of staff.
The $100 million was set aside to fund studies of the environmental impact and preliminary engineering and design of the tunnel, which the 2005 bill declared a "project of regional and national significance". That means the tunnel will not compete for federal funding with such other regional projects as New York City's Second Avenue Subway, Rutkin said.
If the environmental study and the preliminary engineering studies prove the tunnel feasible, the tunnel would be considered for further federal funding as a means of mitigating traffic congestion and air pollution in the region, she said.
"Our next step after the EIS is to go back to the federal government for funding in the next transportation bill," Rutkin said.
The draft environmental study states that a one-track tunnel will cost $1.8 billion and a two-track tunnel would cost $2.3 billion, said Robert Gottheim, the district director for Nadler in New York.
"These estimates do not include the cost of "all the improvement we haven't done for 50 years, which could cost up to $4 billion," Gottheim said. "We can't expect those improvements to be done overnight."
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