New York Traffic Update: Report Shows NYC Tunnel Project To Cause Major Jams For City

Upcoming major construction projects in New York City could dramatically increase the already heightened amount of traffic faced by the city's drivers for years to come, based on early draft proposals shown Monday to Reuters. The plans, which could cost between $5 billion and $7 billion, seek to repair and renovate a century-old tunnel used by Amtrak trains traveling between New York and New Jersey, while also constructing a whole new tunnel.

The proposals were an essential part of Amtrak's $24 billion Gateway Project aimed toward fixing and expanding the private rail company's busy Northeastern corridor, damaged by years of erosion as well as Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The Amtrak tunnel restoration, repair and construction was scheduled to begin around 2019, public records showed.

"The disruptions could be horrible," a transportation sector source told Reuters.

Construction on New York City's west coast would entail lane closures on the West Side Highway, a 5.29-mile-long major North-South route in the Manhattan borough that typically sees between 69,000 and 81,000 drivers daily. The area has already suffered from exacerbated congestion resulting from the ongoing massive redevelopment project known as Hudson Yards, referred to on its official web page as "the largest private real estate development in the history of the United States" and expected to be completed in 2025.

Despite having the most car-free households in the U.S., over 56 percent, New York City has the third worst traffic in the nation and the worst on the East Coast, according to a study done earlier this year by Dutch navigations technology company TomTom. City officials have campaigned to make the city, by far the most populous in the U.S. and responsible for as much as a tenth of the nation's economic output, less car-dependent by encouraging commuters to use public transportation instead of vehicles.