Work begins on Hudson tunnel

NORTH BERGEN, N.J. (AP) — Construction began Monday on the nation’s largest transportation project, an $8.7 billion rail tunnel into New York City that’s expected to reduce the time it takes commuters to reach Manhattan from New Jersey by several minutes.

The 8.8 mile-long fourth rail tunnel under the Hudson River will require the removal of 2 million cubic yards of rock and soil — roughly a third as much as the Hoover Dam — and will take eight years to build.

“This is an incredible project,” New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine told a crowd of 750 people at a ceremony Monday in northern New Jersey. “In today’s economic recession, it has the added value of creating 6,000 new jobs day in and day out for the next six or seven years.”