During a special meeting May 5, the Gateway Development Commission‘s board of commissioners approved a project labor agreement pertaining to the Palisades Tunnel aspect of the broader Hudson Tunnel Project.

The Palisades Tunnel, which NJBIZ has reported on, is a nearly 1-mile-long tube composed of two tunnels running through the Palisades to a construction shaft in Hoboken.

During the meeting, GDC Chief Executive Officer Kris Kolluri outlined project details as well as the latest progress. He noted the procurement is out and five firms have been shortlisted.

“We anticipate awarding the contract sometime in the summer or fall of this year after the full-funding grant agreement,” said Kolluri. “The PLA itself is a very detailed document. But the good news is we have all 21 unions that make up the building trades – the Hudson County Building Trades – have signed or agreed to sign the PLA pending your vote today. The scope of the PLA is only through the Palisades project and will terminate upon completion.”

He stressed the focus and importance of achieving goals pertaining to the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program.

“The FTA mandates that DBE goals are established for the project. The DBE goal for this project is 16.7%,” said Kolluri. “And all the signatories – the unions – will utilize their best effort to meet this goal. Important for us – because this is obviously a very, very complex and a very important project. And from a taxpayer protection standpoint, for us, it was important to get provisions that ensure that the tunnel will go uninterrupted in construction. So, work stoppages and lockouts will be handled through an expedited arbitration procedure – and not at the cost of our schedule or our cost.”

Other key aspects of the PLA include:

• A grievance and arbitration procedure that sets forth standardized protocols for other disputes;
• Maximizes the ability to use apprentices;
• Commits parties to utilize the services of a veterans’ workforce development program; and
• Standardizes holiday and work rules.

“Grievances will also be handled by an arbitration procedures – so these are contract interpretation questions that are separate and apart from jurisdictional disputes,” said Kolluri. “For us, it was also important to get an apprentice provision in there and, equally important, a veterans workforce development program provision in there. Uniform work rules were important. We have standardized holidays across the PLA – as well as work rules that apply to the unions. Of course, their underlying CBA also holds.”

With that, Kolluri asked the board to approve the PLA. They did unanimously, marking yet another step forward for what is described as the nation’s most critical infrastructure project.