New Jersey officials have abruptly halted new work on an ambitious $8.7 billion plan to build two new commuter rail tunnels beneath the Hudson River, raising concerns about the fate of a project that had been hailed as a potential savior for the region’s overcrowded mass transit system.
The project, one of the biggest public works endeavors in the country, broke ground last summer and was expected to be finished in 2018. Billions of dollars have already been committed to building the tunnels, which, once completed, would nearly double the capacity for train travel between New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan. A new underground station near Macy’s on 34th Street is also planned.
But in a highly unusual move, officials at New Jersey Transit, the project’s overseer, said over the weekend that they had placed a 30-day moratorium on all new work and contract bids until they could determine if the project’s cost would be covered by its budget. The review, reported in The Star-Ledger of Newark, was prompted by months of talks with federal officials concerned about cost overruns.
“The governor has made it clear to me that this project must stay on time and on budget,” James Weinstein, the executive director of New Jersey Transit, wrote in a statement. “Anything short of that is unacceptable. During the next 30 days we will work to meet that directive.”
Advocates for the project expressed alarm on Sunday about the decision, and some openly wondered whether it could signal a lack of support from Gov. Chris Christie, who inherited the project from his predecessor, Jon S. Corzine.
“It casts a dark shadow over the project’s future,” said Kate Slevin, executive director for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. “This calls into question the Christie administration’s commitment.”
A spokesman for New Jersey Transit, Paul Wyckoff, said the monthlong hiatus would “not affect completion date of the project.” Asked whether the state could eventually reconsider the tunnels entirely, Mr. Wyckoff replied: “That’s speculative right now. First we want to see what the numbers show us.”
Representatives of the governor’s office did not reply to phone calls. Mr. Christie has been criticized this year for approving steep cuts to his state’s mass transit budget.
The project is intended to relieve the burden on the century-old tunnels that act as a bottleneck for trains traveling in and out of Midtown. Officials at New Jersey Transit have said that the tunnels would eliminate many delays and ease overcrowding on trains.
Jeffrey M. Zupan, a fellow at the Regional Plan Association, said he was concerned that state officials might use the budget review as an excuse to delay the project indefinitely. “My fear is New Jersey will say, ‘Oh, it costs just too much,’ and delay it further,” he said. “That would be awful.”
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