00:00Now, we're going to stay with our Muni moment because construction on the $16 billion tunnel to connect northern New Jersey with Midtown Manhattan, that has been put on pause.
00:09The Gateway Development Commission's CEO saying in a statement, the federal administration continues to withhold funding for this vital investment in our nation's rail infrastructure.
00:19With more now is Bloomberg's Michelle Caskey, who's been covering all of this for a while.
00:23So what's the next step, Michelle?
00:24Yes, it looks like Gateway is saying at 5 p.m. today they will stop work if the funding doesn't come through.
00:35And they've been waiting on this money, and now they've reached the end of the line with their credit limits.
00:42And what's actually going on now, as it's going to start in just a few minutes, is there's a temporary restraining order.
00:50There's a hearing on that. New Jersey and New York State, they are both will be in court with the federal government to try to, again, get a judge to tell the federal government, you need to release this money and start sending it to Gateway.
01:09This is federal funding. Is there any state money here?
01:11There will be. Of the project, there's about $4 billion. Now it's going to come through in federal loans, but New Jersey, New York, and also the Port Authority will need to repay that $4 billion.
01:25Yeah, it's a pretty complicated relationship here.
01:27And once they stop work, and hopefully at some point, speaking on behalf of commuters in the New Jersey area, when they eventually restart it, because this is something that does need to be replaced, how much more expensive does this whole project become?
01:41It's true. It does add up when you stop a project and have to restart it again.
01:47And again, the entire project is $16 billion. So this is a major infrastructure development.
01:55And the head of Gateway, Tom Prendergast, he has said, look, you're going to be taking on costs that you weren't planning for if there's a stop and a restart.
02:11You know, they need to securitize construction sites that are abandoned, not abandoned, but, you know, will be on hold.
02:20They need to secure major heavy equipment. They'll need to move equipment around. It's going to be tough.
02:27Yeah, it's a big, big project. All right. Bloomberg's Michelle Caskey. Thank you for keeping us on top of all of this.
02:32Thank you for keeping us on top of all of this.
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