(The following story by Raju Chebium of Gannett News Service appeared on the Cherry Hill Courier Post website on January 9.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As President-elect Barack Obama outlined his plan to revive the slumping economy, 14 New Jersey and New York lawmakers offered a way to create more than 50,000 jobs in the region, reduce traffic congestion and cut down on air pollution.
In a letter to Obama and congressional leaders on Thursday, the lawmakers said the $8.7 billion Hudson River rail tunnel project should be included in economic stimulus legislation that’s being developed on Capitol Hill.
Among those signed the letters were N.J. Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez and Reps. Rob Andrews and Frank LoBiondo.
A 2006 study commissioned by NJ Transit and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey found the project could create 6,000 construction-related jobs a year until 2017, when it’s scheduled for completion.
New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine and New York Gov. David Paterson have secured $5.7 billion to build an additional rail tunnel under the Hudson River for NJ Transit and Amtrak trains in what will become the nation’s largest transit project. Of that amount, $3 billion is from the Port Authority and $2.7 billion is from New Jersey, according to Paul Wyckoff, an NJ Transit spokesman.
“Federal funding for new transit capital projects is extremely limited and without action the $5.7 billion already raised will sit idle,” the lawmakers wrote. “When completed, this new tunnel will double commuter rail capacity in the New Jersey-New York region, taking 22,000 cars off our roadways every day and reducing greenhouse gases.”
The two states want the federal government to commit the remaining $3 billion of the project’s total cost, Wyckoff wrote in an e-mail.
If Congress approves the money and the so-called Trans-Hudson Mass Transit Tunnel project clears regulatory hurdles as expected, construction could begin as early as this spring.
Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-Paterson, who led the letter-writing effort, said the Hudson tunnel project is not “pork” but a worthwhile effort that been in the works for decades and will create jobs at a time the nation is shedding them by the tens of thousands each month.
“The feds agree that it should be done. The locals agree this should be done,” he said in a telephone interview. “We are not just plucking this off the wall. This is not a bridge or a tunnel that goes nowhere.”