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International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 825 Business Manager Greg Lalevee recently sat down for a wide-ranging discussion with NJBIZ.

During that chat, Lalevee discussed a slew of critical issues around his union, infrastructure projects including Gateway, challenges, areas of focus and more.

He said that 2024 has gone well so far for his union and its members.

“The work situation has been good,” Lalevee told NJBIZ. “There’s plenty of infrastructure work. The utility companies are continuing to upgrade, harden and put redundancy in their systems, and what not. So, it’s been a pretty good year for our members. And an unusually dry summer – there’s been no real interruptions.”

Asked if he thinks New Jersey is getting its fair share of the infrastructure dollars hitting the street as more projects come to fruition in the wake of several big pieces of federal legislation, Lalevee opened his response with a bit of a quip.

“Tongue firmly planted in my cheek, there’s never enough,” he said. “And we have so much to do here that the more we can get, the better. It’s going fairly well. I think we’ll see an acceleration next year. You pass a $1.3 trillion bill, and they do have to put some kind of bureaucracy together in D.C., and bulk up certain areas. Because they are going to be moving more paper, if you will. That takes a year-and-a-half to two years to get done.”

Transitioning teams

He also noted the upcoming presidential election, which will lead to an administration change. That could result in a continuation of the current process or a major shift in thinking on these projects.

“I think we’re really going to see dollars hit the street hard next year. Separate and outside of the Infrastructure Jobs Act, of course, having all of the money in place for the Hudson River Tunnels is a big deal,” said Lalevee. “I’m not going to sit here and criticize what we may or may not be getting out of IJA when somebody drops a $13 billion bomb in the middle of the river – that’s going to create a lot of work.”

Lalevee described the process so far with the Gateway/Hudson River Tunnel project as “great.” However, he was disappointed to hear the news about the impending departure of Gateway Development Commission CEO Kris Kolluri.

“Because he really had things moving really well and moving very efficiently,” Lalevee explained. “Where there’s a couple projects associated with the overall project that are already in the middle of construction. We have one here on our side of the river (Tonnelle Avenue Bridge and Utility Relocation Project in North Bergen). There’s the project in the – I’ll say in the middle of the river, but more on the East Side – that’s doing some soil mixing. There’s a concern that maybe the soil was muddier than what a tunnel boring machine might want. So, there’s a project to spruce up the soil that’s going to go over the next couple of years.”

That latter project is subject to strict rules regarding fish migration so that will stop-and-start over three seasons, Lalevee noted.

“The work to dig the shaft on the New York side has started and there’s work on the bulkhead side of Manhattan and a major sewer line on the West Side Highway,” Lalevee continued. “These tunnel shafts would go right through the pilings that support the sewer line. There’s another project to re-engineer how that weight gets carried and put that project in place. But that stuff is all moving on the other side of the river. The first segment of the tunnel, which will be 100% in New Jersey – from Tonnelle Avenue to right on the Hoboken/Weehawken line, where there will be a shaft dug – is bid and awarded.

“The optimist will say that that’s to start in December,” he added. “The efficiency with which Kris ran Gateway, I think is really something that he deserves a gold medal for.”

Tunneling through

As for the succession at GDC (Kolluri is expected to depart this month), Lalevee said he will be keeping an eye on the situation and expressed optimism that the new leader will carry their predecessor’s vision forward.

“I’m sure that it’s going to be somebody not too, too far away from whatever he has started or somebody with whom he’s familiar and can guide,” Lalevee explained. “Because he really did a great job just keeping everything orderly and keeping it really moving. This thing is now pretty much rolling on all cylinders. It’s just a matter of time until the second tunnel gets bid. But I think by the first or second quarter of next year, we’re going to see spoils coming out in that little patch of ground there on Tonnelle Avenue.”

“The hard part with this is because it’s a tunnel, you really don’t see it,” Lalevee explained. “But it’s happening.”

Stay tuned to NJBIZ this week for the rest of the interview with Lalevee.