State, federal officials have two weeks to study alternative options for tunnel
Rush hour at the Holland Tunnel, Jersey side, this morning. TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie has stared down teacher unions, Democrats and his own education commissioner.
But less than 24 hours after Christie terminated the multi-billion dollar Hudson River commuter rail tunnel, a Washington bureaucrat known for his peacemaking skills went into the Christie lair and persuaded the often-volatile governor to think it all over — or at least back off for a bit.
For 14 days, anyway, the tunnel to nowhere is back to being a tunnel to somewhere.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, an Abraham Lincoln fan who previously served in Congress, persuaded Christie to give the tunnel project a 2-week reprieve.
LaHood traveled to Trenton Friday to meet with Christie, the day after the governor held a news conference saying the tunnel, known as Access to the Region’s Core, or ARC, was canceled due to expected cost overruns.
The $8.7 billion project, which was to have doubled train capacity between New Jersey and midtown Manhattan by the end of 2018, is the largest public works project in America.
People close to the project said LaHood was miffed that Christie held his news conference the day before the transportation secretary was scheduled to present figures with estimates lower than the $11 billion to $14 billion that Christie cited for the project, including projected overruns.
During the more than hour-long meeting in the governor’s office, LaHood, 64, did something that others have found hard to do: get the governor to budge.
"The fact that the ARC project is not financially viable and is expected to dramatically exceed its current budget remains unchanged," Christie said in a statement Friday. "However, this afternoon Secretary LaHood presented several options to potentially salvage a trans Hudson tunnel project. At the secretary’s request, I’ve agreed to have executive director of NJ Transit Jim Weinstein and members from his team work with U.S. Department of Transportation staff to study those options over the next two weeks."
LaHood also issued a statement.
"Governor Christie and I had a good discussion this afternoon, during which I presented a number of options for continuing the ARC tunnel project," LaHood said. "We agreed to put together a small working group from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the office of NJ Transit Executive Director Jim Weinstein that will review these options and provide a report to Governor Christie within two weeks."
At a news conference following the stunning development, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said the governor and the U.S. Department of Transportation will come to the negotiating table to revive the tunnel project.
"We’ll see if this is a change of heart or a change of timing," Lautenberg said outside the Newark Penn Station transportation hub. "Maybe we might just see a light at the end of the tunnel."
State officials said the temporary hold does not mean a reversal of Christie’s decision. They said the project is going to continue winding down even though the governor agreed to the two-week evaluation.
At his news conference on Thursday, Christie was skeptical that the project could be rolled back.
"I don’t know how you scale back going under the river to a terminal that doesn’t exist at the moment," he said. "I don’t know how you scale it back — go two thirds over and have a boat meet everybody there and have them take a boat the rest of the way over?"
Christie announced he was killing the project because cash-strapped New Jersey could not afford to pay for the projected overruns.
Nearly $600 million has already been spent on construction, engineering and land acquisition.
Federal lawmakers loudly protested that with the cancellation, the state would abandon $3 billion in federal funding earmarked for the project.
"New Jersey taxpayers don’t want to own a $600 million hole to nowhere," said U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) "They’d rather have a fully functioning tunnel that brings relief to their commutes, creates tens of thousands of jobs and is supported by a major, $3 billion investment from the federal government."
Transportation advocates, who have been watching the back-and-forth developments like spectators craning their necks at a tennis match, were optimistic.
"It’s a stay of execution for a very worthy project that’s been put on death row," said Zoe Baldwin, the New Jersey advocate for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
Critics have maintained that Christie wanted to scrap the tunnel so he could put New Jersey’s more than $2 billion share for the project into the state’s nearly bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund, which pays for road and bridge repairs and transit services. Christie has vowed not to increase the gas tax to pay for the transportation fund.
Tunnel opponents maintain the project was rushed together so then-Gov. Jon Corzine could get a re-election campaign photo opportunity at a ceremonial groundbreaking in North Bergen in summer 2009. They also said the tunnel, which was to end at West 34th Street in Manhattan, lacked connectivity to Penn Station and Manhattan’s prosperous east side.
NJ Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel dubbed it the "tunnel to Macy’s basement."
Tittel called on both sides Friday to develop a plan that is less like a "political football" and more about getting commuters to work.
"The tunnel may be on life support, but now is the time to resuscitate it by redesigning it to meet the needs of the commuters," he said.
Proponents say the project would create 6,000 construction-related jobs annually and nearly 45,000 permanent jobs once completed. It would provide direct rides to Manhattan and get 22,000 cars off the roads every day.
By Ted Sherman, Mike Frassinelli/The Star-Ledger
Staff writers David Giambusso, Matt Friedman and Chris Megerian contributed to this report.