Gateway Development Commission Names Interim CEO

The Gateway Development Commission (GDC) Co-Chairs Alicia Glen, New York Commissioner and Co-Chair, Balpreet Grewal-Virk, New Jersey Commissioner and Co-Chair, and Amtrak Commissioner and Vice-Chair Tony Coscia, provided an update on Nov. 4 on the search for a new world class CEO for GDC:

“The search committee, with the support of our full board, has been working diligently to identify a new CEO who will ensure the nation’s most urgent infrastructure project is built. We have engaged a national search firm and are interviewing excellent candidates.

“As that process continues beyond current CEO Kris Kolluri’s November 8 departure date, the Board is naming Patrick McCoy, GDC’s Chief Financial Officer, as Acting Chief Executive Officer. An Acting CEO will ensure continuity at GDC and that the ongoing active construction in New York, New Jersey, and in the Hudson River continues uninterrupted.

“Pat McCoy is a significant asset to GDC, playing a key role in the project’s obtaining its full $16 billion in funding commitments. We look forward to working with Pat in the coming weeks as we finalize the process for naming a permanent CEO.”

Construction Updates

GDC is making significant progress on construction of the Hudson Tunnel Project (HTP).

The Tonnelle Avenue Bridge and Utility Relocation Project, which will create access to the entry point for tunnel boring machines (TBMs) that will dig the New Jersey portion of the new Hudson River Tunnel and enable trains to run under Routes 1 and 9 once the tunnel is in operation, is nearly 50 percent complete.

The team working on the Hudson River Ground Stabilization (HRGS) Project to prepare the Hudson River riverbed for tunnel boring has completed more than half of the acoustic corer scans needed to prepare for the ground stabilization work and driven 71 king piles and 50 sheet piles for the temporary cofferdams that will enclose the project work sites. A test cofferdam is already complete, and the work of mixing concrete into the soil to stabilize the riverbed is under way.

More than 17,000 tons of soil have been excavated at the Hudson Yards Concrete Casing – Section 3 (HYCC-3) Project site and the crew on the ground has started work on underpinning the High Line. HYCC-3 is extending an existing rail right-of-way on the West Side of Manhattan to enable the new Hudson River Tunnel to connect to New York Penn Station.

These early work projects are setting the stage for tunnel boring to begin. GDC awarded the first tunnel boring contract for the HTP in August and expects to order the first TBMs for the project in 2025. Proposals for the Manhattan Tunnel Project, which will dig the portion of the tunnel in Manhattan, are due in November and responses to the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the Hudson River Tunnel Project, which will bore the section of the tunnel under the Hudson River, are due in early December.