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Another financial masterpiece: $16 Billion Hudson River Tunnel Halted unless renamed for Trump

Old_JoeOld_Joe
edited February 6 in Other Investing
Following are edited excerpts from a current report in The New York Times:

Nearly all of the work was scheduled to stop on Friday unless federal officials agreed to restore funding that had been halted last year or a court ordered them to.
Workers were winding down their construction activity on the biggest transportation infrastructure project in the nation as the Trump administration’s prolonged suspension of its funding was scheduled to bring work to a halt on Friday. The project, known as Gateway, centers on a new $16 billion rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey. Nearly 1,000 people have been working at sites on both sides of the Hudson and in the river, and more than $1 billion has already been spent, according to the project’s planners, the Gateway Development Commission.

Nearly all of that work was scheduled to stop on Friday unless federal officials agreed to restore Gateway’s funding or a court ordered them to. The commission sued the government for breach of contract in a federal court in Washington on Monday, contending that it was owed more than $200 million in expenses that had not been reimbursed. The states of New York and New Jersey filed a separate suit in federal court in Manhattan this week.

“We’re just in shutdown mode,” said a shop steward of the Laborers’ Union, as he stood on a hushed construction site on the western edge of Manhattan on Thursday afternoon, surrounded by fellow workers who feared they could be out of work by Saturday. The workers were preparing for a pause of unpredictable duration, so they would not remove the cranes and other equipment from the sites just yet.

Some of the workers facing layoffs were working on barges in the ice-filled Hudson River, driving hollow steel cylinders called “king piles” into the river’s bottom, but at least a few of them would have to remain, to protect the work that has been completed and to steer ships away from it.

Federal transportation officials had said that the suspension would last until a review of the project’s contracts for compliance with new policies regarding diversity could be completed. The Gateway Development Commission said it had responded to all of the transportation department’s requests and that all of its contracts with disadvantaged businesses had been “appropriately certified.”

Elected officials from New York and New Jersey held out hope that the Trump administration would relent before the end of the week. The White House gave a different reason for the prolonged suspension in a statement last month, pinning responsibility on Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and other Democrats for refusing to negotiate and alluding to their stances on immigration policies.

Comment:   The king of casino bankruptcies is in charge of our country. Your tax dollars at work. Good luck on that.

See Below: Money would be released if the facilities named in Trump’s "honor"-

Comments

  • DrVenture
    This is not going to help the GOP with the blue-collar vote in that region. Likely why trump is trying to deflect blame for his decision away from himself.

  • CrashCrash
    "...pinning responsibility on Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and other Democrats for refusing to negotiate and alluding to their stances on immigration policies."

    So, the work-halt is nothing more nor less than REVENGE. Because Democrats are Democrats. This sort of crap sharply reminds me that it was in the days of Gingrich the Newt and Ronny Ray-guns that politics became a scorched earth bloodsport: take no prisoners. Compromise became a dirty word. The Repugnants refused to compromise and wanted everything their own way. THEY STILL DO. Slimeballs.
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    edited February 6
    Following are excerpts from an additional report in The New York Times:

    Schumer pressed to help rename Penn Station and Dulles Airport for Trump...
    The Trump administration has sought to pressure Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, to help name New York’s Penn Station and Washington Dulles International Airport after President Trump in exchange for releasing billions of dollars he has frozen for a rail tunnel under the Hudson River.

    Top administration officials have told Mr. Schumer in recent weeks that the money would be released if he agreed to name the facilities in Mr. Trump’s honor , according to four people familiar with the private conversations. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal the private discussions.

    The push to rename the station and the airport for Mr. Trump comes as the president, who recently put his name on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, has been on a renaming spree and has appeared increasingly preoccupied with his legacy.

    The Trump administration began withholding funds for the new tunnel connecting New York City and New Jersey, a $16 billion project, in October. The agency overseeing its construction moved to halt ongoing work on Friday as money was running out.

    Mr. Trump and Mr. Schumer met at the White House last month to discuss the frozen funds. Though he is the top Senate Democrat, Mr. Schumer has no direct oversight over either transportation hub and rebuffed the request, according to two of the people.

    The White House and the Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Comment:   "Name everything after ME and I'll release the $16 Billion Dollars."   The man is criminally depraved.

  • rforno

    Crippling a major economic transportation artery for the US by throwing a greedy tantrum fit ... yup, that's Donnie for you.

    Here's a list of all the things Donnie wants named after himself (as of today, anyway):

    https://www.axios.com/2026/02/06/trump-dulles-penn-rename-branding
  • sma3
    What is even more absurd about this is Schumer has no control over what Penn Stations is named. Amtrak owns it and like the Kennedy center, Trump could probably change to name himself.

    The cancellation of the funding was announced months ago
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    Good points! Why doesn't he simply rename AmTrack to TrumpTrack and be done with the whole thing?
  • sma3
    @Old_Joe

    He wants Schumer to kiss the ring or the A**
  • AnnaAnna
    No, he is simply setting up the blaming talking points for failing to negotiate a budget and ICE reforms. (I wanted to work with them, but they wouldn't even talk to me.) The naming thing is silly enough that he thinks people will think his enemies would rather keep a name than make them safe.
  • msf
    Just to be clear, he's talking about New York Penn Station, not NJ Penn Station.

    Somehow it would seem fitting for that abomination of a train station to be named after a failed developer. The original Penn Station was a masterpiece.
    image
    image

    https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/penn-station-masterpiece

    What we now have (aside from the Farley extension aka Moynihan Train Hall) is a dump sitting in the basement underneath Madison Square Garden.
    In retrospect, entombed beneath Madison Square Garden and a commercial building too mediocre to rise even to the level of good or bad, the new Penn Station represented a city disdainful of its gloried architectural past.
    ...
    Ada Louise Huxtable, the former Times architecture critic, wrote in 1966: “Functionally, the station was considerably less than noble. The complexity and ambiguity of its train levels and entrances and exits were a constant frustration.” Except for its glass-and-iron waiting room, she added, the station “was a better expression of ancient Rome than of 20th-century America.”
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/nyregion/old-penn-station-pictures-new-york.html

    What better suited to our tinpot emperor wannabe?
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    U.S. Judge Says Trump Cannot Halt Funding for Tunnel Project

    Following are excerpts from a current report in The New York Times:

    Nearly all of the work had stopped on Friday while negotiations continued in Washington and litigation played out in court.
    A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from suspending billions of dollars of funding for a rail tunnel under the Hudson River, pending future arguments in the case.

    Construction of the new $16 billion rail tunnel, the biggest transportation infrastructure project in the United States, had come to a halt earlier in the day, four months after the Trump administration suspended its federal funding. Judge Jeannette A. Vargas of the Southern District of New York ordered the federal government to unlock the billions in federal grants to the program, as the case proceeds through the courts. If the Trump administration complies, the project could soon restart construction.

    “Plaintiffs have adequately demonstrated that they would imminently suffer” irreparable harm, Judge Vargas wrote in her 11-page ruling, if the project was “forced to shut down its operations.”

    The governors of New York and New Jersey were pleased: “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,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York.

    Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey concurred: “I am thrilled that the court has granted temporary relief, lifting the freeze of billions of dollars of federal funding for Gateway. President Trump’s arbitrary and politically motivated decision to freeze this funding is plainly illegal, and we will continue to pursue full relief so the nation’s most urgent transportation project can keep moving forward — and workers can keep putting food on the table.”

    The project, known as Gateway, centers on a tunnel between New York City and New Jersey that is meant to replace an aging and deteriorating one that often causes train delays and bottlenecks. Nearly 1,000 people have been working at sites on both sides of the Hudson and in the river, and more than $1 billion has already been spent, according to the project’s planners, the Gateway Development Commission.

    By Friday morning, the only work being done at four of those sites was the winding down of activity and securing of equipment as crews prepared to be laid off indefinitely, while negotiations continued in Washington and litigation played out in two federal courts.

    Comment:   Sanity Prevails... until whatever is next from our dear leader.

  • CrashCrash
    criminally depraved...

    ORANGE criminally depraved. Shaking my head at what a self-absorbed, boorish CHILD he is.
  • davidrmorandavidrmoran
    OT
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    Gateway Funding Doesn’t Have to Be Immediately Restored, Judge Says

    Following is a current report in The New York Times:

    U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas had ordered the funding for a $16 billion tunnel project restored last week, but on Monday granted a temporary stay after the federal government appealed her decision.
    The federal government will not have to restore funding to the $16 billion Gateway rail tunnel project between New York City and New Jersey before 5 p.m. on Thursday, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled on Monday.

    U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas had ordered the funding restored at the end of last week, after the states of New York and New Jersey sued the federal Department of Transportation for suspending the project’s funding four months ago. The Gateway Development Commission, which manages the tunnel project, said the federal government owed it more than $200 million in reimbursements since the suspension started in October.

    But the Justice Department asked for a stay of that ruling and appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Judge Vargas denied that request but she granted a temporary stay “to allow defendants time to file and receive decision on a motion for a stay in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.”

    On Friday, the development commission laid off about 1,000 workers who were working at four construction sites in Manhattan, North Jersey and in the Hudson River, where crews have been driving hollow cylinders known as king piles into the bottom of the river. The commission’s chief executive, Thomas Prendergast, said it had exhausted a bank line of credit it had been using to cover expenses during the suspension.
  • DrVenture
    Treating human lives (1000 laid off) as mere pawns of politics and vengeance.

    How many of those impacted, even beyond the layoffs, voted for him? He doesn't care.
  • Sven
    How many of those impacted, even beyond the layoffs, voted for him? He doesn't care.
    Unfortunately, there are too many people who bought his lies he told during the campaign. Where are those well paid manufacture jobs? There are none. Those got left behind will suffer as he cut whatsoever small benefit they may receive.
  • MarkMark
    Why on earth would anyone want to rename the "Gateway Rail Tunnel' to the Massive POS Tunnel? I can't see many voting for that.
  • CrashCrash
    edited 4:03AM
    More clown car, idiotic, spoiled-child, petulant antics. PEOPLE'S LIVES are affected. Does the Orange regime care? Hell, no. Stay tuned to this channel to watch more Amateur Hour nonsense from the bush league pick-up team. They have made the USA a laughingstock.
  • msf
    Had Mr. "Art of the Deal" been willing to honor a deal reached 2017 we would not be here now:

    NYTimes: Trump’s Yanked Support for Hudson Tunnel Angers Those Who Saw a Done Deal, March 3, 2018.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/03/nyregion/trump-schumer-hudson-tunnel.html
    Mr. Trump has promised to spur “the biggest and boldest infrastructure investment in American history.” So his opposition to an established project that is widely considered a solution to one of the nation’s most critical infrastructure needs has confounded even veterans of his own party. Some fear that Mr. Trump is jeopardizing commerce along the Eastern Seaboard simply to spite Senator Charles E. Schumer, the Democratic leader from New York.

    “If the news reports are accurate that he wants to kill it or hold it because he’s mad at Chuck Schumer, that makes no sense,” said Representative Peter King, Republican of Long Island. “This is essential to the national economy as well as the regional economy.”
    sma3 said:

    He wants Schumer to kiss the ring or the A**

    Then and now.
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