President Biden will travel to New York on Tuesday to announce that $292 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law will go to the Hudson Tunnel Project to improve travel between New York and New Jersey.
The project will rehabilitate the old North River Tunnel, which opened in 1910, and build a new tunnel beneath the Palisades, Hudson River and the waterfront area in Manhattan, according to a White House official. It is set to create 72,000 jobs and improve the New Jersey Transit and Amtrak trip for 200,000 weekday passengers.
The Hudson Tunnel Project is a total $16 billion investment to improve New Jersey Transit and Amtrak service between the two neighboring states. The project is funded by the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law, which Biden signed in 2021.
The president will also announce that his administration has awarded almost $1.2 billion from the law’s National Infrastructure Project Assistance discretionary grant program, also known as Mega, for nine projects, including the Brent Spence Bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio and I-44 and US-75 improvements in Oklahoma.
He will be joined in New York by fellow Democrats: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), New Jersey Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Biden’s trip to New York follows one to Baltimore on Monday, where he touted funding to modernize the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel.
Biden will then travel with Vice President Harris to Philadelphia on Friday to tout funding to replace lead pipes in the city.