Worker Dies in 60-Foot Fall at NYC Tunnel Site

A construction worker died Thursday after a 60-foot fall at a Manhattan site for the massive Gateway tunnel project beneath the Hudson River. The man, whose name has not been released, was working on a newly poured foundation wall just before 9am when he fell into the pit below, said New York Fire Department Battalion Chief Anthony Romano. NJ.com reports that the man was an employee of the New York Concrete Corp.

The exact cause of the fall is still unknown. Emergency crews, including around 60 firefighters and medical staff, responded quickly, but the worker was found without a pulse and was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital, the New York Times reports. The incident occurred at a site where crews are building a right of way to connect future rail tunnels to Penn Station. Work at the location has been halted while authorities investigate what went wrong, according to a statement from the Gateway Development Corporation, Amtrak, and Related Companies.

The $16 billion Gateway project aims to expand rail capacity between New York and New Jersey by adding new tunnels under the Hudson, a critical infrastructure effort for the region. President Trump said last week that the project had been "terminated" during the government shutdown, but other administration officials said it would continue, Politico reports.