More Tunnels for New York City

The NYT has an article on a proposal for new tunnels running under the Hudson river to connect NY and NJ. Money excerpt:

The ARC tunnels are part of a larger tableau of civil projects that include the construction of the Second Avenue subway and the East Side Access project that will bring L.I.R.R. trains to a station adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. Some pundits have compared these days of large-scale projects to when master builders like Robert Moses reshaped New York’s landscape with aplomb.

But many of these projects were designed decades ago, when New York’s existing bridges, tunnels and rail lines had already reached capacity. In that light, many transportation officials view the ARC project as an urgent necessity, not unlike the first tunnels that were designed so riders could avoid crossing the Hudson by ferry.

“We’re still living off the past in many ways, and we have to think big again,” said Rae Zimmerman, the director of the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems at New York University. “But we also really have to keep up the level of service because these big projects can take 20 to 30 years to build.”

As more people want to move into an already dense urban space we need to build transportation systems so they can properly commute. Several of the city's subway lines are approaching full capacity and if there was an easier commute from elsewhere, it's a safe bet that people might decide to live in an area of NJ with good rail access.