Construction workers who were laid off from the $16 billion Gateway tunnel project rallied alongside Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday, pressing the Trump administration to restore full funding for the vital Hudson River rail infrastructure project.
Work on the Gateway project has been frozen since Feb. 6, according to officials, leaving approximately 1,000 workers without jobs. The project aims to build a new Hudson River rail tunnel to replace a century-old tunnel that carries more than 200,000 Amtrak and New Jersey Transit travelers daily.
“I’m hoping they can release the funds and that we can all get back to work,” said Giulio Petroni, a Local 731 general foreman who was among the first workers on the Manhattan site near Hudson Yards last April. “That we can get back to providing for our families, get everybody off the couch and back in their boots.”
Guido Rivieccio, 49, of Laborers’ Local 731, described what workers would typically be doing on a Tuesday morning: “Pouring concrete, digging, excavating, a little of everything.” Instead, the union members found themselves at a political rally.
A federal judge released $30 million to the Gateway Development Commission last Friday, and the federal government distributed another $77 million on Tuesday toward the $200 million owed to the project by the Trump administration, according to officials.
“DOT is following the court order,” said a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday he expects the remainder of the federal funding to be distributed this week, potentially allowing crews to return to work “in a few days” and ending what he called “the senseless Trump fund freeze.”
The funding dispute emerged after New York and New Jersey filed a lawsuit last week, following the Gateway Development Commission’s suit against the federal government for alleged breach of contract. Hochul charged that workers who supported Trump have become political pawns in the dispute.
“These people supported you,” Hochul said, addressing Trump. “How can you throw them out of their jobs, how can you tell them to go home?”
Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, acknowledged that Trump’s “America First” pledge resonated with many project workers, despite the president calling the project a “future boondoggle” on Monday.
“He said, ‘America first, we’re going to put America first,’” LaBarbera said. “You know how you put America first? You build a strong middle class, because don’t ever forget it: We’re the ones that built this country.”
The work stoppage affects construction sites in New Jersey, Manhattan and beneath the Hudson River. Hochul said work will not resume without the federal government fully addressing its arrears on the project.
“This is not out of the goodness of their hearts that we’re seeing money come right now, I want to be clear about that,” Hochul said. “They’re doing this because they were ordered by a judge.”
James Starace, Gateway’s chief of program delivery, warned that the project faces significant consequences from the pause, including the loss of skilled workers who have moved to other jobs. The Gateway Development Commission, created in 2019 to oversee the rail improvements, must now rebuild momentum that was lost during the funding freeze.
“This isn’t a Republican tunnel or a Democratic tunnel, right?” LaBarbera said. “This should not be a political tug of war.”
Petroni emphasized the workers’ non-partisan stance: “We’re not red, we’re not blue. We’re boot brown over here, that’s what we are.”
The Gateway project represents a crucial component of the East Coast rail corridor extending between Washington, D.C. and Boston, designed to replace aging infrastructure prone to breakdowns that affects hundreds of thousands of daily commuters.
