Ali Bauman is a New York Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist who has been a general assignment reporter for CBS News New York since spring 2016.
The Gateway Program's Hudson River tunnel construction is set to shut down indefinitely Friday after the Trump administration pulled federal funding for the $16 billion infrastructure project in New York and New Jersey.
Construction workers leaving the Hudson Tunnel worksite in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood Thursday had no idea if or when they would return.
Gateway is supposed to build new commuter rail tunnels between New York and New Jersey, and upgrade the 100-year-old Amtrak tunnels that get trains from Boston to Washington, D.C.
But after the Trump administration abruptly froze federal funding for the project back in October, about 1,000 workers are set to be laid off when the project shutters.
"We are the pawns and it's not fair," shop steward Guido Rivieccio said.
The Gateway commissioner as well as the states of New York and New Jersey are suing the federal government to free up the funding that was already approved by Congress.
"The Gateway Development Commission has expended every resource to prevent any interruption to construction, but we've gone as far as we can go," said Tom Prendergast, CEO of the Gateway Development Commission.
Construction crews will have to dismantle, secure and shut down the site, which could cost an additional hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"All these big cranes that you see are going to be lowered down and we're gonna just be closing everything up," Rivieccio said.
A White House spokesperson last week blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democrats for "standing in the way of a deal for the Gateway Tunnel Project by refusing to negotiate with the Trump administration."
"For the good of New York, New Jersey, our economy, and union workers, the only thing to do is for President Trump to release the legally approved funds now," Schumer said Thursday.
"We are the pawns between both parties. They're arguing and at the end of the day, who gets hurt? The workers," Rivieccio said.
Commuters will feel the pain too as the aging infrastructure crumbles.
Thursday night, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand responded to reports from Punchbowl News that the president promised to restore funding for the project, but only if Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer agrees to rename Penn Station and Washington's Dulles Airport after Trump.
Gillibrand said in a statement: “No. This is ridiculous. These naming rights aren’t tradable as part of any negotiations, and neither is the dignity of New Yorkers. At a time when New Yorkers are already being crushed by high costs under the Trump tariffs, the president continues to put his own narcissism over the good-paying union jobs this project provides and the extraordinary economic impact the Gateway tunnel will bring. “I demand that the president put people first and unfreeze this project and all the others his administration has been holding hostage for his personal gain.”
“There is nothing to trade. The president stopped the funding, and he can restart the funding with a snap of his fingers,” said a source close to Schumer
The White House did not immediately respond to CBS News New York's request for comment Thursday.