Despite recent announcements of funding for some of the nation’s largest infrastructure projects, final funding decisions and details are still pending.
President Joseph Biden and congressional Democrats and Republicans have been talking about reaching a consensus for weeks on an infrastructure package but a final agreement has yet to be announced.
In New Jersey alone, billions of dollars and thousands of jobs – many of them that could last for years – are at stake.
Spending would be on roads, highways and bridges, as well as broadband Internet infrastructure, water system improvements and wind and solar projects.
Gateway Tunnel
Earlier in the year, federal officials in Washington approved $11.6 billion to build new rail tunnels under the Hudson River. That money could possibly come from the infrastructure bill being debated now. The tunnels are part of the larger Gateway Project that will rehabilitate the existing 110-year-old tunnels, which were severely damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, and the Portal Bridge between Kearny and Jersey City.
Roads, Rails and Bridges
The NJ Turnpike and Parkway Authority have approved multi-year programs to maintain and expand key roadways that are essential to interstate commerce as well as consumer traffic.
More than $600 billion has been proposed to support transportation investments, which includes $20 billion for roads, $110 billion for existing mass transit, $135 billion for fleet electrification, $80 billion for Amtrak and freight, and another $25 billion for projects of national significance). Nearly $700 billion also has been proposed for housing and utilities.
Sustainable Energy
The Biden administration have announced that shallow waters between New Jersey’s coastline and Long Island, known as the New York Bight, could house future offshore wind farms and the federal government would begin developing an environmental impact statement for the Ocean Wind offshore wind project. The area encompasses 800,000 acres and could provide energy to the largest metropolitan area in the country, home to 20 million people.
The twin steps were among the actions as part of the Biden’s administration shift to renewable clean energy from fossil fuels.
Ocean Wind is awaiting final approval to build an offshore wind farm to generate as much as 1,100 megawatts of electricity, which the administration said could power 500,000 New Jersey homes. The wind farm off of Atlantic City would generate 1,100 megawatts when it becomes operational in 2024. The New Jersey BPU has approved this windfarm and another one off Cape May.
Workforce Training and Development
The projects also would mean jobs building the turbines and making the steel and concrete, building ships to carry the equipment to the sites and constructing an elaborate port to serve as a staging and transport area in Salem County to serve the entire industry.
There will be a whole ripple effect throughout the economy to support these projects,” said IUOE Local 825 Business Manager Greg Lalevee. “Workforce training and supply chain development will be critical and New Jersey workers will be positioned to benefit from these projects, once they get under way.”
Local 825’s state-of-the-art training centers will play a large role in this development. The New Jersey Training Center is strategically positioned off of Exit 8A of the NJ Turnpike. It offers more than 60 acres for hands-on training of all kinds of heavy equipment. In addition, the Local has made a large investment in training simulators.
The Training Center has applied to become accredited as a Technical College, positioning it to play a key role in the state’s economy for years to come.