Booker, Menendez urge DOT Secretary to explain Gateway tunnel inaction.

Byline: NJBIZ STAFF

U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez, of New Jersey, are calling on U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to explain why her department is not acting on the Hudson River railroad tunnels that connect New Jersey and New York City.

Despite repeated formal and informal invitations to visit the current tunnels and the Portal Bridge in New Jersey to learn more about the Gateway Program a series of infrastructure improvements to the Northeast Corridor Chao took a personal tour of the project site in April 2018 without members of the Congressional Delegation.

Booker and Menendez asked Chao to explain why the Environmental Impact Statement for the Hudson River tunnel project has not yet been approved by DOT, even though a draft Environmental Impact Statement prepared by the Federal Railroad Administration and New Jersey Transit was published in June 2017.

The pair also asked Chao why the project received a medium-low rating from the DOT earlier this year, and why the Portal North Bridge project also continues to languish without DOT's approval.

"We are writing to request information regarding...