Fed to Jersey: Where's Our Money?
Posted by NotMike at 8:30 AM
Weve featured quite a bit of news here about new rail construction projects across the country and the federal money thats available to make these infrastructure expansions possible. New Jerseys Governor, Chris Christie, however, recently terminated a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River to increase rail capacity between NJ and New York.
The project, which had started planning 15 years ago, had already spent US$600 million on preparation and engineering when Governor Christie cancelled it. The estimated total cost of $8.5 billion was being financed by the state and the federal government. Now that the rail tunnel is off, the federal government wants their $271 million back.
Gov. Christie cancelled the project out of fear of cost overruns during the projected construction period, but his critics believe hes attempting to divert funding to the states road maintenance projects instead. Currently, there is one hundred-year-old tunnel beneath the Hudson river that is running at capacity. The new tunnel would have been able to accommodate an additional 25 commuter trains to help ferry the 625,000 commuters that make the trip into New York every day.
