The decision is expected to come Monday
As Gov. Christie prepares to kill the multi-billion Hudson River train tunnel, the tunnel construction site sits empty. TRENTON — As Gov. Chris Christie prepared for a weekend of discussions with transportation advisors, his spokesman had a question for critics of the governor’s decision earlier this month to terminate the over-budget Hudson River train tunnel.
"How would they pay for potentially billions of dollars in cost overruns?" Michael Drewniak asked.
How that question is answered over the next 48 hours will decide the fate of America’s largest public works project.
Christie, who at the request of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood gave the tunnel project a two-week reprieve that ended at midnight Friday night, is not expected to make a formal decision until at least Monday.
Citing potential cost overruns of $2.3 billion to $5.3 billion, Christie on Oct. 7 canceled the planned nine-mile tunnel between Secaucus and West 34th Street in Manhattan.
The next day, LaHood persuaded the governor to allow him two more weeks to show alternatives that could save the project that was expected to double rail capacity in the nation’s busiest corridor.
But statements by Drewniak Friday indicated the same financial impediments remain. And it seemed likely, as it has for days now, that Christie was getting ready to pull the plug — again.
"The hurdle remains unchanged," Drewniak said. "Governor Christie continues to recognize the need and advantages of expanding rail capacity between New Jersey and New York. But as Governor Christie has repeatedly stated, he is not willing to saddle New Jersey taxpayers with a public works project with such a large, indeterminate cost overrun projection with no way to fund it."
On the last day of the two-week reprieve, there was a flurry of press releases Friday from Democrats, who have maintained Christie wants to scrap the tunnel so he can use part of New Jersey’s $2.7 billion commitment to pay for the state’s nearly broke Transportation Trust Fund.
The fund, which pays for road and bridge repairs and transit services, is set to run out of money early next year.
"He chooses to play the game," U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said at the Newark Penn Station transit hub, his fourth news conference there in 15 days. "If you want to play games in New Jersey, you do it in Atlantic City. You don’t do it with the public."
Lautenberg said the figure for the tunnel, including a contingency for cost overruns, was $9.7 billion — $1 billion over the original $8.7 billion estimate.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, speaking at a news conference about the ARC tunnel.However, LaHood released a statement later in the day saying the low-end figure he presented to Christie during their Oct. 8 meeting was $9.78 billion and the high-end figure was $12.71 billion.
Those figures did not include the nearly $800 million New Jersey would have to pay for a pair of tracks along a new bridge over the Hackensack River, just south of the existing Portal Bridge between Kearny and Secaucus. The century-old bridge is in disrepair and is so low it is often opened to allow commercial boats underneath, causing delays.
Christie’s two-week reprieve followed a four-week halt on construction to review potential overruns.
Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee, said there was no need for the governor to wait to restart work the commuter rail tunnel.
"The time is now to put an end to this sideshow and get this project moving again," he said.