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Gov. Murphy meets with President Trump to advocate for Gateway Project

Gov. Phil Murphy met with President Donald Trump this weekend to advocate for the Gateway Tunnel Project in New Jersey.

News 12 Staff

Feb 27, 2019, 1:48 AM

Updated 2,108 days ago

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Gov. Murphy meets with President Trump to advocate for Gateway Project
Gov. Phil Murphy met with President Donald Trump this weekend to advocate for the Gateway Tunnel Project in New Jersey.
The governor met with the president and members of the Trump administration on Sunday and Monday.
“It was a good exchange, and it's the only thing other than pleasantries I speak to the president about,” Murphy said Tuesday. “My view is we have to have a rifle shot, that's the most important thing right now for us.”
The governor said that the discussion was “more reasonable” than the one they previously had last year about the multibillion-dollar project to connect New Jersey and New York by tunnel.
New Jersey Transportation Committee chairman Assemblyman Dan Benson says that the Gateway Project is one of his top priorities.
“This needs to get done. Not only for New Jersey, not only for New York, not only for the Northeast region but for the nation,” Benson says. “If you want to pick an investment choice that has the hugest impact and return on your dollar, Gateway is it.”
The project relies on billions in federal funds that Congress needs to approve and that the Trump administration needs to release. Benson says he is doing what he can to be prepared to break ground.
“We've been working with the state [Department of Transportation] and the Port Authority to make sure that their investments up in that region feed into making sure we aren't losing any time,” he says.
Benson says that the Portal Bridge project has already begun and he says that the regional economic benefits of Gateway are too good to pass up.
Gov. Murphy says that he will meet with President Trump again to discuss the project, but that a date hasn’t been set.