Urgent tri-state infrastructure project gets green light after long delay

Hari Sreenivasan:

Before the pandemic, about 200,000 people every day rode through the tunnel under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, but almost none of them got this view. I'm in the rear of an Amtrak train to see how a tunnel built in 1910; 111 years ago, is holding up. My guide is Craig Schulz from Amtrak.

Am I still seeing some of the damage from Superstorm Sandy on the ceilings and the sides?

Craig Schulz:

Millions of gallons of saltwater inundated the tubes. The salts and chlorides really left behind by that saltwater have infiltrated the concrete and are essentially eating away at the infrastructure from the inside out. And so what we have to do basically is essentially gut the tunnel right down to the concrete liner and essentially rebuild it from the inside out.

Hari Sreenivasan:

On Thursday, the Federal Transportation Administration upgraded the tunnel project to, quote, 'medium-high,' meaning it would now be eligible to receive federal grants. Under the Trump Administration, the project had been deemed less of a priority, and federal officials had disagreed with how much New York State and New Jersey would contribute.

The nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, signed into law in November will also help foot the bill for the upgraded tunnel. The tunnel portion of the project will cost an estimated $10 billion and includes building a new tunnel next to the existing one, then a years-long shutdown to overhaul the crumbling original one.

In October, Amtrak chairman Anthony Coscia told us waiting for there to be an acute problem wasn't an option.

You know, infrastructure is inherently unsexy. People can't see the result right away. Right. And it's, how do you convince people to make a 10-year investment to prevent a problem that might come, right?

Anthony Coscia:

Will infrastructure ever be a sexy topic that I really couldn't comment on? But I have to tell you that people who wait on delayed trains, people who sit in traffic, people who are concerned about the quality of the air we breathe, I think that number has grown to a point where it's a pretty loud audience that I think right now is pounding its fist and saying, we want to see these things get done.