The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced a $25 million grant for part of the Hudson River Tunnel project in North Bergen.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant program has half of the 2023 funding going to rural areas and the other half to urban areas, including North Bergen, and $44,048,000 was allocated nationwide.
“Using the funds in President Biden’s infrastructure law, we are helping communities in every state across the country realize their visions for new infrastructure projects,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.
“This round of RAISE grants is helping create a new generation of good-paying jobs in rural and urban communities alike, with projects whose benefits will include improving safety, fighting climate change, advancing equity, strengthening our supply chain, and more.”
The US DOT says the grant will Tonnelle Avenue Bridge and Relocation Project, which will center around the construction of a 100-foot road bridge to carry Tonnelle Avenue over a new railroad that will serve as part of the Hudson River Tunnel.
“Safety will be improved for pedestrians crossing Tonnelle Avenue with a new signalized intersection. A focus of the project is to achieve environmental sustainability by reducing idling and traffic delays in an effort to lower greenhouse gas emissions,” they wrote in a RAISE Fact Sheet.
“Tonnelle Avenue provides freight trucks access to local communities, which will improve movement of goods to those communities. The project addresses state of good repair by reducing constructing and maintenance burdens of the larger project through efficient and well integrated design.”
In August, Buttigieg joined Gov. Phil Murphy (D) and other New Jersey officials in Kearny to break ground (for the fourth time) on the $2.7 Portal Bridge North project, which had been advanced by President Joe Biden (D) back in October 2021.
“This announcement of $25,000,000 in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for the further development of the Gateway Program is great news for the Eighth Congressional District. Under the leadership of New Jersey’s Congressional Delegation and the Biden Administration, progress is accelerating on the largest critical infrastructure project in the United States,” added U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8).
“I look forward to continuing our work to support this transformative investment in our residents, commuters, and workers.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated with a comment from U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8).
