Transit
Gateway Shortlists Three Teams for $250M Hudson Riverbed Stabilization
An Amtrak train is seen at the Bergen County. N.J. portal of the North River Tunnel. The Gateway project would add a second Hudson River rail tunnel and rehabilitate Amtrak's existing tunnel.
Photo courtesy of Gateway Development Commission
The Gateway Development Commission shortlisted three teams for a $250-million piece of its $16.1-billion Hudson Tunnel Project between New Jersey and New York. The commission issued requests for proposals Aug. 15 to the selected bidders for the work, which would include stabilizing a section of the riverbed ahead of tunnel construction.
The shortlisted teams for the design-build work include Weeks Marine Inc., and two joint ventures: one of Walsh Group with Traylor Bros. Inc. and one of Jay Cashman Inc. with Treviicos Inc., according to a notice from Gateway.
A spokesperson declined to share the total number of responses the commission received.
The Hudson River Ground Stabilization Project plan calls for identification and removal of obstructions, as well as ground improvements along a section of the riverbed where the planned rail tunnel would later be built, according to bidding documents. The stabilization would be performed on a 1,200-ft-long section under the eastern side of the river.
Responses to the RFP are due in October. Work on the stabilization project is set to start next year for completion by January 2027, according to Gateway.
The larger plan is to build a new two-tube tunnel and other track alignment to carry Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains on a 4.5-mile section of the Northeast Corridor, a busy passenger rail line between Boston and Washington, D.C., with the tunnel itself about 2.4 miles long.
The new tunnel would relieve some pressure on the existing North River Tunnel, a more than century-old structure that was damaged by flooding during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The existing tunnel would be rehabilitated following construction of the new crossing. The full project is scheduled for completion in 2038.
The commission was jointly formed by New York and New Jersey officials to lead rail infrastructure projects connecting the states. Gateway also has underway the $1.6-billion Portal North Bridge project over New Jersey’s Hackensack River. A team of Skanska and Traylor Bros. started work on that project last year.
Gateway also currently has an RFQ out for the Palisades Tunnel portion of the Hudson Tunnel Project. That work would include boring a pair of 5,100-ft-long, 25-ft-2-in.-dia tunnels between North Bergen and Hoboken, N.J., installing precast concrete tunnel lining, constructing six cross passages through rock and constructing a shaft in Hoboken where the tunnel would meet another phase of the future Hudson River crossing.
Submissions for that piece of the project are due by Sept. 13, with Gateway in its RFQ stating that it seeks firms with experience working on tunnel projects of more than $200 million.
Gateway also plans to issue an RFQ for the Manhattan side of the tunnel in the next few weeks, a spokesperson says.
