Gateway Tunnel Video

mr. president this is Governor Andrew Cuomo I wanted to give you a quick preview of the so-called gateway tunnel project I know we've been talking about it for many years but it is probably the critical infrastructure issue facing not just New York in New Jersey but literally the entire Northeast there are two tunnels they're approximately 13,000 feet long they go from New York to New Jersey they are owned by Amtrak and they are central to the entire Northeast Corridor the tunnels are about 107 years old they were built using cast iron tubes these tunnels were not built in rock but rather were basically built lying on the river bed and now sit about 20 feet down within the river bed in the silt so there is water that intrudes from the river through the cast iron ring into the cement that lines the tunnels the intrusion of the saltwater over time has been continuing to deteriorate the concrete it has reached the rebar and the corroding rebar is actually breaking apart the cement which is then falling down onto the track the sealing of the tunnel has a high power cable that powers the trains through the tunnel the other engineering feature which is problematic is the base of the tunnel has two bench walls one wall on both sides of each tunnel in that bench wall run terracotta ductwork and in the terracotta ducts are the power cables that serve the trains in the tunnels and actually serve Penn Station those bench walls are cement they are also corroding and decomposing aggravating the entire situation is that superstorm sandy filled much of the tunnel with salt water once the salt water was pumped out of the tunnel much of the salt residue remained that salt is still sitting on the cement decomposing the cement and eroding the copper cables the new tunnel project proposes building two new tunnels near the old tunnels once the new tunnels are constructed we would then go back and take one of the old tunnels out of service and rebuild that old tunnel and then put that tunnel in service and then go back and rebuild the other old tunnel one of the other aggravating factors is given the fact that these are complicated engineering feats if we were to start today we're probably talking seven or eight years the cost of building two new tunnels is estimated in the range of twelve to thirteen billion dollars within that amount part is allocated to rebuilding the old tunnels we had worked out with the prior administration after many months of discussion and negotiation a formula where the federal government would basically pay 50 percent of the cost New Jersey New York and the New York New Jersey Port Authority would pay the other 50 percent as you know the way we now do construction in the state of New York is we rely very heavily on the private sector we finished the new bridge replacing the old Tappan Zee Bridge it was originally estimated to be five billion dollars we bid the project internationally the price came down to four billion dollars the project was finished on time on budget and it's a beautiful bridge and I would suggest we have the same methodology here which is we use private sector contractors to do it an incentive for early delivery sanction for late deliveries time is of the essence given the magnitude of the project the state remains flexible New Jersey also is a partner in this project I've spoken with governor Murphy and he is prepared to work cooperatively to make this happen and again it's not just New York New Jersey it is the entire Northeast and we stand ready to be of assistance we cannot do it without the federal government both from a legal point of view as we don't own the tunnels from the approval point of view they're going to be federal approvals and obviously we're going to need a federal partnership for the funding thank you for taking the time to review this video giving you a background in construction I believe once you see the severity of this situation it will speak volumes and they say a picture is worth a thousand words in this case I think it's worth thirteen billion dollars

Channel: Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

Views: 31,572

Keywords: New York State, Governor Andrew Cuomo

Id: a_hKH7aHNMY

Length: 5min 23sec (323 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 19 2018