WASHINGTON — The Trump administration placed a new roadblock in front of the Gateway Tunnel Wednesday when Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said that a required environmental impact statement won’t be coming any time soon.

The report already is more than two years past the Federal Railroad Administration’s self-imposed March 2018 deadline, and Chao said it won’t be completed as long as the new Hudson River tunnel fails to qualify for federal funding.

“That’s news to people who work on this,” said U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who questioned Chao at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee.

“Many of us believe that there’s been a number of unjustifiable obstacles put in the way of the Gateway project and this is just one of them,” Murphy told the transportation secretary.

Chao said the report must include the final details for the project, and transportation officials won’t know that until all the funding is lined up.

Otherwise, it’s “putting the cart before the horse,” she said.

The Federal Transit Administration last month rated the tunnel project as medium-low, continuing to express concern with how New Jersey and New York will pay for their share of construction and making it ineligible for federal dollars.

Without the environmental statement, pre-construction work such as buying the necessary land, cannot be done.

Build Gateway Now Campaign Manager Brian Fritsch called Chao’s explanation “one of the Trump administration’s most bald-faced lies to punish New York and New Jersey.”

"It seems like there are a set of rules for other projects and another set for Gateway,” said Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for the Gateway Development Corporation.

Rep. Tom Malinowski, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the environmental statement for the Portal Bridge was completed long before the Federal Transit Administration changed its rating to medium-high, thus making that project eligible for federal funding.

“This is obviously bogus,” said Malinowski, D-7th Dist. “This is obviously their latest excuse for not having a good explanation for sitting on this report for two years past their own self-imposed deadline.”

NJ Transit and Amtrak officials said the environmental issues were totally separate from concerns about financing.

“The purpose of an environmental impact statement is not to discuss funding, it is to discuss the environmental impact of a project,” Amtrak spokesman Craig Schulz said.

Pressure to move ahead with Gateway intensified last month after a problem with an overhead wire caused Amtrak officials to close one of the 110-year-old tunnels, causing a commuting nightmare.

Chao told the subcommittee that the administration was working with Amtrak to figure out a way to fix the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy in the existing tunnels while keeping them open. This would allow repairs to begin much earlier than waiting for the new Gateway tubes to be built.

She said they were working with experts at Cornell and Columbia universities, the same people who helped New York state develop a way to keep its L subway train running while making repairs to its tunnels.

“We need to address the repair portion of the existing tunnel,” Chao said. “That’s totally separate from expanding the capacity. Those are two concurrent projects.”

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th Dist., said Chao’s idea was “absolutely ludicrous.”

“Her proposal does nothing for the congestion that is created there,” said Watson Coleman, a member of the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee. “Her proposal to repair a tunnel while we’re still using it makes no sense. It’s not reasonable, it’s not rational and we should not entertain it as an alternative.”

There also was some good news for the Gateway project on Wednesday. Federal Railroad Administration officials issued an environmental assessment for the replacement of Amtrak’s two Sawtooth Bridges in Kearny. The spans, built in 1907, cross New Jersey Transit and Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) tracks. The public will have 30 days to comment.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook.

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