NYC NOW - Midday News: City Jails Bill Expected to Pass, Teen’s Death in Police Custody Ruled Suicide, and $16 Billion Hudson Tunnel Project Begins

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

The New York City Council is set to pass a bill Monday requiring city jails to notify family and attorneys immediately after someone dies in custody. Meanwhile, medical examiners have ruled the death of 18-year-old Saniyah Cheatham in police custody a suicide. Plus, construction has started on the $16 billion Hudson River Tunnel project, which will add a new rail tunnel for NJ Transit and Amtrak before repairing the storm-damaged original tube. WNYC’s Stephen Nessen takes us inside.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Monday, July 14th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. The New York City Council is set to pass a bill today to increase transparency from city jails when someone dies in custody. The measure would require the Department of Correction to immediately notify the person's family, attorney, and other parties like the city's chief medical examiner, Member Carlina Rivera sponsored the bill. She says it will help give families clear answers about what happened to their loved ones. Not getting the information in a timely manner just really feels undignified. These families are deserving of transparency. Every life lost in custody is deserving of accountability

and at the very least an explanation. The law would also create more stringent guidelines for investigating such detainee deaths. A correction spokesperson, person says the department already takes many of the steps outlined in the bill. New York City medical examiners who ruled the death of Senea Chiehatham, a suicide. She's the 18-year-old who died in custody, NYPD custody this month, and her family has been pressing the city for answers in this case. The medical examiner's office says the Bronx resident died by hanging herself in a holding cell at the 41st precinct station house. Police say Chiafam was found unresponsive around 1240 in the morning on July 5th, leading multiple officers to perform CPR in her while waiting

for the arrival of an ambulance. The NYPD says it is reviewing the incident. 82 with clouds now. A flood watch starts at 2 o'clock this afternoon for the tri-state airing goes to midnight. We have the 50-50 chance of mid-afternoon showers and thunderstorms, it's mostly cloudy, 84, with a light wind. Stay close. There's more. after the break. On WNYC, I'm David First. Work is underway on the Hudson River Tunnel Project, also known as Gateway. At $16 billion, it's one of the most expensive transit projects in the country. The plan involves building a new tunnel under the Hudson River for New Jersey Transit

and Amtrak trains, and then repairing the existing tunnel that was damaged in Hurricane Sandy. WNYC Transit reporter Stephen Nesson joins us now to talk about what he learned on a recent tour of the project. So, Stephen, I'm fascinated. Tell us what you saw. Well, we started in New Jersey, North Bergen, to be precise, where crews have been digging under Tunnelie Avenue, heading toward the Palisades. They had to move this extremely busy roadway, just shifted over a little, without interrupting traffic while they start to dig below the roadway. And basically, they're preparing to dig all the way through the... Palisades. And I went right below the roadway. And from there, you can see this massive space created for the tunnels, where the tracks will go from grade level to below ground. So one of the

first things workers said they had to do when they got to this site was tear out some of the early construction of the arc tunnel. You'll recall that was the earlier version of this project, basically, that former Governor Chris Christie killed in 2010. He claimed at the time it was to save money. Back then, the new tunnels were expected to cost $8 billion. Sorry to say, that's half the cost of what the tunnels are going to cost now. But, you know, we're basically a year into construction. And I spoke with John Schweppenheiser. He's the construction manager on the site.

And he says they were able to utilize some of that earlier work. I wouldn't say a waste. It was, you know, we had to bring this project up to current building standards. And to ensure that I think it was a smart move. He says they're planning to recycle the materials, but to be honest, some of that earlier work really isn't of much use in 2025. Interesting. So that's what's happening in New Jersey. How is the New York side looking? It's super busy. There's a bunch of stuff going on. One thing that anyone can see is the digging under the high line at 30th Street. They're basically making a trench that they'll eventually fill with this new tunnel. And to do that work, it's really fascinating. They have to keep the highline open. and to do that, they had to build these concrete blocks and beams to support the highline

so they can make this tunnel right below it. It's quite a feat. As you know, this project has been a decade in the making, and they knew the route the tunnel would have to take to eventually get to Penn Station. So as Hudson Yards was developing over the years, they actually built this concrete case. So the new buildings that are now built at Hudson Yards aren't taking up their space with their foundations. They preserved it. And now they're just going to dig the tunnel to sort of connect it all. Well, speaking of digging, you reported this week that crews have already found some interesting things in the ground there on the West Side Highway. Yeah, I'm calling it the ghosts of Manhattan's past, especially around 10th Avenue,

west of 10th Avenue. That ground is actually made up of landfill. It's not like bedrock like the rest of Manhattan. So as part of the planning process, they had to do these subsurface scans of the ground, mostly to make sure they're not hitting utilities or anything else. that's buried in the ground there, and they really have found some fascinating stuff. So far, they tell me they've discovered a mysterious two-story staircase in the ground. No one is really clear what that came from or what it was ever connected to. They also found the foundation of an old soap factory, as well as a collection of pig bones. Those pig bones are likely from when the meatpacking district lived up to its name.

Right. And, of course, there's also the remains of the Eleanor. elevated West Side Highway. Old school New Yorkers will recall that a section of that fell down in 1973, which led the city to eventually tear down the old West Side Highway, but some of it still remains in the ground, which is all to say, these crews need to remove it carefully. They can't just send a boring machine in to mash it all up. They need to carefully excavate it. And these are just some of the many complications that come with building a tunnel in Manhattan in 2025. There's also the landfill itself, the stuff I was describing.

It can't be drilled through like solid rock. So the construction teams tell me it's like when you're at the beach, you know how it's easier to dig a hole when the sand gets wet than when it's dry? Yes, yes, bringing buckets of water up high on the beach so you can make some great construction projects with the kids. Exactly. They have a very fancy version of that in which they're going to harden the ground by putting pipes in it full of a cold water brine.

That's this saltwater sand. solution that gets extremely cold so it freezes the ground. Wow. Then they can dig it up much more easily. Fascinating. Well, I have to ask, in that area around 30th Street, for months, there is what looks like a floating barge in the middle of the Hudson River. Is that part of this project? Yes. It's actually what's called a coffer dam. Basically, when you get up close to it, I was on a boat and they took us really up near it. And what you can see, it looks like these

barrels around it. They actually create a box of sand. stagnant or still water separated from the shifting currents of the Hudson River. And in this little calm water pool, this is where workers are injecting concrete into the riverbed. So a drill can eventually cut through it to lay this new train tunnel. Cruise tell me the riverbed is the consistency of chocolate pudding. They say it kind of looks like chocolate pudding. Maybe a tad less appealing. Very tasty, I'm sure.

So they need to make that hard again so they can drill through. it and different than the existing tunnel, which just sits on the riverbed itself. Here's Stephen Sigmund. He's a spokesperson for the project explaining how they're going to both dig the tunnel and build the tube at the same time. So you ultimately make the core and shell of the tunnel at the same time. You don't dig it and then go back in and put those things in. You dig it, you reinforce it, and you pour the concrete all essentially as one long process. And that process is underway now. They're hoping it will wrap up in 2029 with the final completion date still marked for 2035.

And I hope to be here in a decade, David, to discuss it with you. Okay, I'm going to circle that on my calendar right now. I'll see you then. WNYC's transit reporter, Stephen Ness, and thanks again. Thank you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day.

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