Posted on 10/08/2010 8:53:36 AM PDT by Willie Green
Governor Christie's move to scuttle the $8.7 billion Hudson River rail tunnel project has prompted a Trenton visit today by U.S. Transporta tion Secretary Ray LaHood to “discuss a path forward on the ARC tunnel project.”
Christie's decision could also require the state to return nearly $300 million to the federal government - cash that has already been spent on the project, on which construction began in the summer of 2009.
The move would cause the state to lose $3 billion in federal money earmarked for the tunnel, but
Christie said he hopes to keep $3 billion that the Port Authority has dedicated to the project for other New Jersey transportation needs.
Rumors that Christie would terminate the “Access to the Region's Core” project - which had been decades in the making and herald ed as a solution to congestion in North Jersey - had been rampant since Sept. 10, when Christie suddenly halted any new work on the tunnel. He said he needed 30 days to review project costs based on information he received that it could go above its $8.7 billion budget.
On Thursday, he said his ARC Executive Steering Committee in formed him the tunnel could cost New Jersey taxpayers an addition al $2 billion to $5 billion and rec ommended that the project be terminated.
Christie, who called the project “rushed” and “ill-conceived,” referred to the $8.7 billion price tag as “fiction” as he accepted the recommendation.
The announcement unleashed a torrent of fury from legislators, environmental groups, transportation advocates - and Democratic Sens. Bob Menendez and Frank Lautenberg, longtime tunnel proponents.
And it was a reversal for the governor, who called the project “critical for the transit riders of New Jersey and the region” in an April letter to LaHood. Christie on Thursday said he realized he went back on a campaign promise, but said he did so because he had new information he did not have when running.
Menendez said reversing his position “puts our state's credibility for future transportation funding investments at serious risk.”
“It would seem a more sensible and level-headed approach on behalf of New Jersey workers, commuters and taxpayers would be to take a deep breath, work with all of the parties involved to identify ways to rein in the costs and get the tunnel built,” Menendez said.
Lautenberg said Christie “should be talking to the people who are out there stuck in their cars in the morning wanting to go to work. Or the families who are worried about the air their kids breathe.”
Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who heads the Assembly's transportation committee, said the state could have to return millions to the federal government.
$478 million spent
So far, $280 million in federal funds has gone to the project, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee spokesman Jim Berard said Thursday.
“It's more than likely what has been spent will have to be returned,” Berard said, noting that the decision is up to the Federal Transit Administration.
“The minute FTA decides it's dead, that money can be given to somebody else,” Berard said. “It's a competitive program. I'm sure there are other states with their projects in the hopper and the pa perwork already filed just waiting for funds to become available.”
In a memo, the ARC steering committee wrote that about $478 million in actual cash had been spent through Sept. 30.
“If you go to the site of the dig ging and the drilling, you'll see that the portals are there and there's a lot of work that's been done,” Lautenberg said. “So we're talking, my friends, about real money, real problems, about real opportunity, and letting it all go up in smoke, if you will.”
The project called for the con struction of a 9-mile commuter rail line between North Jersey and Manhattan that runs adjacent to Amtrak's Northeast Rail Corridor. It includes the construction of two new tunnels under the Hudson River, a new underground passen ger rail station adjacent to New York's Penn Station, a storage yard and the purchase of passen ger rail vehicles and specialized dual-powered locomotives.
It also would create 6,000 new construction jobs and a transfer-free ride into Manhattan for North Jersey commuters.
Cost breakdown
Multiple agencies had invested or were planning to invest in the project. The breakdown of funding sources is as follows:
Christie said he intends to keep the $3 billion from the bi-state Port Authority agency to remain on the New Jersey side of the river, pos sibly to benefit people in the port districts.
When asked if the project could be salvaged if the federal govern ment or other agency were willing to contribute more money, Christie said federal officials made clear to him in February they would not be contributing any thing beyond the $3 billion.
Transportation funding bills for 2011 pending in the House and Senate include another $200 million for the tunnel. Unlike previous years when New Jersey lawmakers, including some Republicans, sponsored tunnel funding through the earmark process, the 2011 funding was also requested by President Obama.
Christie also added that scaling back the project was not an option: “I don't know how you scale back going under the river to a station that doesn't exist.”
He said transportation officials are looking into other ways to solve the congestion issues the ARC tunnel would have addressed. Calls to New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson were referred to NJ Transit, the project's sponsor.
Wisniewski questioned the cost estimates, saying bids on transportation projects around the state are coming in at 20 percent below estimate. “There is no better time to be doing a public works project than now,” he said.
Green with outrage
Environmental groups reacted with outrage
The state chapter of the Sierra Club criticized the project's design and lack of coordination with Amtrak trains when ground was broken by Gov. Jon Corzine last year. But the group wanted improvements, not cancellation, and in a statement called Christie's action “an outrageous abuse of power that will set back New Jersey's transportation needs for decades.”
“Governor Christie is turning his back on transit riders and the environment,” said Doug O'Mal ley, field director for Environment New Jersey. “The only thing New Jersey would gain from losing the ARC tunnel are the over 66,000 tons of global warming emissions annually from residents who will have no choice but to drive.”
While Christie has argued that the health of the Transportation Trust Fund is a separate issue from the ARC tunnel, many tunnel advocates believe he killed the ARC project to free up money for the fund. Christie said the two issues are not related.
Speaker wants proof
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliv er said the decision lacked foresight and was made in a vacuum based on “a three-page memo lacking any substantive details.” She also questioned the figures and whether Christie was aggressive enough in trying to save the project or pursue additional funding from the federal government.
“We have no information on the projected cost overruns of this project and whether they are even realistic and we have no idea whether the federal government might be able to offer more assistance,” she said.
The Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a regional transportation watchdog group, said the decision will hurt New Jersey citizens in the future.
Spokeswoman Zoe Baldwin called the tunnel “a once-in-a-generation project that could have transformed the growth potential of our state. But that was yesterday. Today, we listen in disbelief as the governor refuses to listen to his constituents, and his constituents want transit.”
Tom Wright, executive director of the Regional Plan Association said the ARC project would have added 70,000 daily riders helping to expand the global economy and raising property values of homes near transit stations.
“All of this has been jeopardized by this decision,” he said.
Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney said he was outraged by the decision.
“The governor's egregious error will prove to be a devastating blow to commuters in Bergen County,” said McNerney. “With ridership up fourfold in the last few decades, Governor Christie has killed the only way that riders of the Pascack and Main/Bergen County Line would ever have had a one-seat ride to Manhattan. Additionally, we'll have more vehicles around the George Washington Bridge at rush hour.”
Christie is The Man! He actually means it when he says NJ can’t spend billions of dollars it does not have. Had MA had such courageous leadership, the Big Dig wouldn’t have been such a disastrous bottomless pork barrel.
Still cheaper than what the project would have cost the NJ taxpayers. Just because you still have checks doesn’t mean you still have money in the bank.
I hope he runs for president next time
He is my second choice after Palin, creeping up on first
ALL the others mentioned so far do not interest me at all
(espeically ‘Mitt’ Romney)
I hope he tells the choo choo marxists to kiss his ample ass.
I love how the federal scum act like it was their money.
“Christie, who called the project “rushed” and “ill-conceived,” referred to the $8.7 billion price tag as “fiction” as he accepted the recommendation.”
He looked north to the “Big Dig” in Boston and knew it wasn’t going to come in at anywhere NEAR the projections. Once they get the project underway, it will suck them dry as these things always do. Even in the best of times overruns on these projects are absurd.
I’m not really sure what his other conservative credentials are, the same is with Bolton, but I like them both. I like Palin too, but I think she might energize the opposition, but then again, I’m no strategist.
I’d vote for any 3 of them in a heartbeat, I love them to death. I loved a few front runners last time around, Thompson for sure, but the guys I loved, all dropped out, leaving the usual field of goofballs.
I hope if any of these 3 run, they won’t be convinced that they are “un-electable” by the MSM, and that they stick with it.
But yeah, no more re-hashes of old faces. No more Romney or Huckabees, and McCain will probably run just to build up his warchest again for the next time his state seat is in play. I get the feeling McCain is going to be the Nader of the conservatives.
Ray “La Hood”
How appropriate!!!!!
He looked north to the “Big Dig” in Boston and knew it wasn’t going to come in at anywhere NEAR the projections. Once they get the project underway, it will suck them dry as these things always do. Even in the best of times overruns on these projects are absurd.
Yep, major upgrades to urban infrastructure are hellishly expensive.
But the only alternative is to let them crumble into a slum from neglect.
So that must be Christie's "vision" for NYC and northern Jersey... just let the infrastructure decay from neglect and lack of funding...
OK... so spend the money somewhere else... that's fine with me!
I agree. They need a new highway down there.
I told you guys not to tell Willie about this. Now look what you have done!!!
Republican Christie is doing a great job!
What you “Willie green”, are advocating is socialism/marxism. Mass transport owned and run by government is socialism.
Here is a hint: socialism doesn’t work.
Brideg can’t work, because you need a place for the bridge to end up in Manhattan..roads, rail lines, etc..thta’s the most expensive real estate in the country..
“But the only alternative is to let them crumble into a slum from neglect.”
I’m not sure that is the ONLY alternative ... buying a new house isn’t necessary because the roof needs repair. Especially when you are broke.
Here’s an interesting issue that will have to be dealt with in the future..Over the last 100 years, as the Manhattan and NJ shorelines have increased, the width of the Hudson at Manhattan has shrunk about 20%. Consequently, the river flows much faster than it used to do. The main auto tunnels, the Lincoln and Holland, weren’t dug below the bedrock, they were just sunk on top of the river’s bottom, and covered with dirt. The faster flow of the rivr is eroding much of the dirt on top, and below the tunnels, and that will have to be fixed..
New Jersey is better off without the new tunnel.
Why should New Jersey subsidize employers to stay in New York City?
Instead subsidize them to relocate to New Jersey.
It is a tough decision to take a loss. Looking back, I wish I had taken them earlier, because the deal NEVER got better.
LOL...didn’t you see the subheading in the article:
“Green with outrage”
“So that must be Christie’s “vision” for NYC and northern Jersey”
Sorry you flunked geography and civics Willy, but Chris Christie isn’t Governor of NYC.
NYC will continue to wither away, while business, drawn by the dramatic reduction in costs, comes across the river to New Jersey. Let Mayor Bloomberg build the new tunnel if he wants to, so his constituents can get to their jobs in New Jersey.
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