NY-NJ Gateway Tunnel Awards Contract to Dig Under Hudson River

The Hudson Gateway Tunnel project to connect New Jersey to Penn Station in New York City.

Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The agency overseeing the new $16 billion Gateway rail tunnel under the Hudson River approved a $1.29 billion construction contract, a major step forward for one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the US.

The overall Gateway plan calls for building a new two-track tunnel and also rehabilitating the existing tube, which opened in 1910 and shuttles Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains between the Garden State and Manhattan.