The New Jersey Transit's (NJ Transit) board of directors approved the first major tunneling contract for the $8.7 billion Mass Transit Tunnel, the nation's largest public transit project that will double commuter rail capacity between New Jersey and New York.

The board authorized the award of a $583 million contract to a joint venture of Barnard of New Jersey and Judlau Contracting Inc. of College Point, N.Y., the lowest of three bidders. The contract covers construction of one of the project's three tunnel segments, a mile-long segment in Manhattan.

The Manhattan tunnel segment is part of an overall project to build two new single-track commuter rail tunnels under the Hudson River, doubling capacity of the two-track tunnel that was built 100 years ago, which today operates at its functional capacity. The other main feature of the project is construction of an expanded New York Penn Station specially designed to handle the customer surges associated with a commuter railroad.

The project is being built by NJ Transit in partnership with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and is expected to generate and sustain 6,000 jobs annually in peak construction years and create 44,000 permanent jobs after completion.