Gateway Tunnel Project Funding Set To Be Released After Court Order Expires

NEW YORK CITY — The Trump administration will be required to release funding for the Gateway Tunnel Project after a federal appeals court declined on Thursday to overrule a lower court’s decision.

U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas granted a temporary restraining order on Feb. 6 that prevented the federal government from freezing $16 billion in funds.

She then granted a brief stay of her order to allow the decision to be appealed in front of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals that expired Thursday night.

Since the appeals court declined to rule, the initial restraining order is now in effect. Though they still referred the appeal to the motions panel of Second Circuit judges, which will convene until the week of Feb. 23, at the earliest.

"The court’s order is now in effect, and the federal government must immediately release funding for the Hudson Tunnel Project,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “This administration never had the authority to freeze this funding, and it no longer has any excuse to delay.”

It is not known how soon the federal government will release funding for the project.

The Feb. 6 decision was expected to allow work to resume at the construction site. However, construction remained paused – with layoff notices recently issued to nearly 1,000 construction workers last week.

On Feb. 9, more than 200 unionized workers held a rally in North Bergen on the New Jersey side of the Gateway Tunnel, demanding that the Trump administration release funds for the project.

We expect the Trump Administration to swiftly comply with its legal obligations. Continued delays would be unlawful and add costs and time to the nation’s most important infrastructure project,” New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said in a statement.

The Gateway tunnel project aims to build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey that would carry Amtrak and other local transit trains.

In addition, they are repairing an existing 116-year-old rail tunnel that was damaged by Super storm Sandy in 2012. Construction work began in 2023 and gained federal funding after approval from then-president Joe Biden.

Vargas wrote in her decision that plaintiffs had "adequately shown that the public interest would be harmed by a delay in a critical infrastructure project."

The Trump administration put a hold on funding in September during the government shutdown. At the time they said the spending was based on unconstitutional diversity, equity and inclusion principles.

According to the lawsuit filed by New York and Jersey, the federal government hasn’t sent any funds for the project since October. New York and New Jersey are owed more than $200 million.

This is a developing story. This post may be updated.