With CEO Kris Kolluri’s departure rapidly approaching, the Gateway Development Commission (GDC) provided an update on the search for a new leader.

Kolluri is set to depart the organization Nov. 8. On Monday, GDC named its chief financial officer, Patrick McCoy, acting chief executive officer.

In a Nov. 4 statement, New York Commissioner and Co-Chair Alicia Glen, New Jersey Commissioner and Co-Chair Balpreet Grewal-Virk and Amtrak Commissioner and Vice-Chair Anthony Coscia said the search committee – with the support of the full board – is working to identify a new CEO who will ensure that the nation’s most urgent infrastructure project, the Hudson Tunnel Project, is built.

“We have engaged a national search firm and are interviewing excellent candidates,” the statement said. “As that process continues beyond current CEO Kris Kolluri’s Nov. 8 departure date, the Board is naming Patrick McCoy, GDC’s Chief Financial Officer, as Acting Chief Executive Officer. An Acting CEO will ensure continuity at GDC and that the ongoing active construction in New York, New Jersey, and in the Hudson River continues uninterrupted.”

The GDC described McCoy as a significant asset to the organization who played a key role in securing the project’s full $16 billion in funding commitments.

“We look forward to working Pat in the coming weeks as we finalize the process for naming a permanent CEO,” the statement closed.

Other updates

The organization also gave an update on the progress of the construction, underway on both sides of, as well as in, the Hudson River.

• In North Bergen, the Tonnelle Avenue Bridge and Utility Relocation Project, is nearly 50% complete. The project will create access to the entry point for tunnel boring machines. TBMs will dig the New Jersey portion of the new Hudson River Tunnel as well as enable trains to run under Routes 1 and 9 once the tunnel is in operation.
• In New York, more than 17,000 tons of soil were excavated at the Hudson Yards Concrete Casing – Section 3 (HYCC-3). Project site and work has started on underpinning the High Line.
  HYCC-3 is extending an existing rail right-of-way on the West Side of Manhattan to enable the new Hudson River Tunnel to connect to New York Penn Station.
• On the Hudson, more than half of the acoustic corer scans needed to prepare the riverbed for tunnel boring is already complete as part of the Hudson River Ground Stabilization Project. The work will drive 71 king piles and 50 sheet piles for the temporary cofferdams that will enclose the project work sites. A test cofferdam is already complete and the work of mixing concrete into the soil to stabilize the riverbed is under way.

More information on the Gateway program and project updates including pictures and videos are available online.