Those involved in the Gateway Program said the change was likely to put chances of receiving federal funding under the New Starts program in serious jeopardy. | AP Photo Trump administration deals another blow to Gateway tunnel project

Federal transportation officials have dealt another blow to the Gateway rail tunnel and other components of the massive infrastructure project, assigning the work a new rating that further jeopardizes the chances of winning grant money from Washington.

In an annual funding report sent to Congress on Monday for its Capital Investment Grants Program, the Federal Transit Administration said it had issued a “Medium-Low” rating to the proposed $13 billion Hudson River tunnel, the second-lowest on a five-point scale. It was the first time the grant application had received a formal rating.


The FTA also reduced the rating of the Portal Bridge North project — a bridge replacement that would fix one of the single-greatest bottlenecks on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor — from “Medium-High” to “Medium-Low.”

Those involved in the Gateway Program said the change was likely to put chances of receiving federal funding under the New Starts program in serious jeopardy.

The new rating comes after the administration of President Donald Trump rejected an Obama-era agreement to cover half the cost of the broader $30 billion Gateway Program, which calls for constructing two new tubes connecting New Jersey to midtown Manhattan and repairing the existing tunnel that is now falling apart. The White House has also proposed ending the New Starts program, but Congress has so far protected the funding source.

“In case it wasn’t clear before, President Trump today tried to land another death blow to Gateway by having his Federal Transit Administration (FTA) vindictively and inexplicably downgrade the project in order to cut off critical federal funding,” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said in a statement on Monday.

The Portal Bridge component had previously received a rating in February 2017. The new ratings were issued in November and, according to a person familiar with the Gateway application, did not factor in any information received in October, when new details had become available.

In the case of the Portal Bridge project, estimated to cost $1.6 billion, the FTA is taking the position that the amount of committed or budgeted funding from other sources had fallen from 57 percent to 21 percent of the total cost. The FTA said that is a primary reason the rating was reduced.

“This is because the proposed funding sources have changed, and there were low levels of committed funds and optimistic assumptions used in the submitted financial plan used in the FY 2019 rating,” a spokesperson for the agency said Tuesday evening.

The spokesperson cited the same reasons in explaining the rating assigned to Gateway, which the report said hadn’t received any budgeted or committed funds.

“Any rating below Medium makes the project ineligible for advancement from one phase of the CIG process to another,” the spokesperson said. “Each project rating reflects a point-in-time evaluation. As a project proceeds through the various phases of the CIG program and project information is refined, the rating is reassessed.”

John D. Porcari, the interim executive director of Gateway Program Development Corp., said the ratings fail to take into account the commitments from New York and New Jersey. The states have agreed to split half the cost of the tunnel project, putting up $5.5 billion, though they'll need federal loans in order to do so. The grant application asks the federal government to cover the remaining costs.

Porcari said the Portal Bridge application, in which local agencies would also cover about half the total cost, “has only been improved with each updated submittal” since the first rating was issued. He noted early construction work has been underway for several months.

“We are surprised and disappointed by the sudden downgrade based on what appears to be changing evaluation criteria,” Porcari said. “We continue to work closely with USDOT to strengthen our funding applications and remain confident that the merits of the projects warrant significant federal investment.”

Lauren Gardner contributed to this report.