Trump Administration Plans to Appeal Court Order to Provide Gateway Funding

The Trump administration is appealing a court order issued Friday that it must disburse funding for the stalled Gateway Tunnel project, one of the nation’s largest infrastructure projects

The move comes after a battle between New York Democrats in Washington, D.C., and the White House culminated in the federal government withholding cash to pay for the $16 billion tunnel project under the Hudson River, resulting in 1,000 workers being sent home on Friday.

Later that day, a New York federal judge ordered the Trump administration to continue providing the funding that was approved by Congress after the New York and New Jersey governments petitioned the courts for intervention.

The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bloomberg first reported that the administration had filed an appeal of the court order.

“Today, a judge affirmed what we’ve said from the start: Our case against the Trump administration is likely to succeed, and Donald Trump’s attempt to rip away funding and derail the Gateway Tunnel project is likely to be found unlawful,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement late Friday. “This ruling is a victory for the thousands of union workers who will build Gateway and the hundreds of thousands of riders who rely on it every day. We will work to protect this decision and move as soon as possible to get work back on track.”

The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) representing workers who were laid off as a result of the funding freeze, however, continued to organize a picket over the weekend. It’s scheduled for Monday at 11:30 a.m. The union called the Trump administration’s efforts “political gamesmanship [that] played with their livelihoods.”

The Gateway Development Commission, which manages the project, also sued the federal government to get its workers paid.

The tunnel project has been underway to provide Amtrak riders with additional access to Pennsylvania Station and an alternative to the 116-year-old North River Tunnel, the only rail thoroughfare available beneath the Hudson River.

Experts have stressed the importance of alleviating the bottleneck situation for train traffic, adding that the economic repercussions would be significant if the North River Tunnel were out of commission for a prolonged period.

The redundancy is viewed as critical to getting workers in and out of Manhattan as well as growing the regional economy.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.