Tunnel Boring Machine Launched for $16B NY-NJ Hudson River Rail Project

The first tunnel of its kind in over 100 years under the Hudson River will be built by four TBMs.

Oct 13, 2026 - 12:15

New York has launched the first tunnel boring machine on its $16 billion Gateway Hudson Tunnel Project and will soon begin excavating a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River, the first tunnel of its kind in over 100 years.

The TBM will clear the way for a train tunnel between New York’s Penn Station and New Jersey, and a second TBM will be launched soon after. The current route between the two states sees 200,000 daily riders.

Both machines will bore roughly one mile through hard rock under the Palisades Cliffs to the Hudson County Access Shaft in Weehawken, New Jersey. Once they arrive, both machines will be removed and replaced both a different pair of TBMs that will excavate the second tunnel section directly under the Hudson River.

The first pair of TBMs will cover roughly 30 feet of tunnel per day and are expected to arrive at their final destination in one year. The TBMs were manufactured by Herrenknecht in Germany.

The first two tunnels fall under the Hudson Tunnel Project’s $466 million Package 1A contract awarded to Schiavone Dragados Lane Joint Venture in August 2024. The pair of tunnels under the Hudson River are part of the $1.3 billion Package 1C contract awarded to Traylor/Walsh/Skanska JV in April 2026 and was the sixth of 10 contracts to be awarded for the project.

The Hudson Tunnel Project is part of the Gateway Program, a set of rail investments meant to upgrade and improve commuter and intercity services for a nearly 460-mile rail line connecting major cities in the Northeast.

The Northeast Corridor is the most heavily used passenger rail line in the U.S., at 800,000 passenger trips a day. Most of its mainline is owned by Amtrak.