For commuters trekking between New York and New Jersey, a light at the end of the tunnel has finally appeared. Following a brief funding scare and legal battle earlier this year, tunnel boring has officially commenced on the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project.
Long hailed as America’s “most urgent” infrastructure project, this massive undertaking will create a brand-new rail link between the two states, drastically expanding capacity and reliability across the heavily congested Northeast Corridor.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill met in North Bergen on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, to ceremonially flip the switch on the first tunnel boring machine (TBM). The milestone marks the start of the largest excavation beneath the Hudson River in over a century, promising a future of seamless travel for the more than 200,000 daily passengers who rely on the crossing.
Inside the Tech: The Tunnel Boring Machines
These aren’t your average drills. The project utilizes two colossal, 500-foot-long “Single Shield” tunnelboring machines, each weighing over 1,680 tons with a massive 28-foot diameter cutterhead…