The Gateway tunnel project to build two new tunnels underneath the Hudson River and repair the existing ones faces delays.

Officials overseeing the Gateway Project say it will be completed three years later than expected — by 2038 and cost an additional $2 billion which would bring the price up to an estimated $16.1 billion.

“One of the things we did differently was calculated this in a more conservative way,” Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for the Gateway Program, told NY1. “We included higher interest rates for the loans and a two-year contingency on the schedule for the first time.”

These delays and cost increases are despite calls for urgency from the project boosters who worry the century-old tunnel that serves Amtrak and NJ Transit is at risk of a full shut down.

The tunnel was severely damaged during Hurricane Sandy. Sigmund said they may still speed things up, and that inflation was the biggest driver of the cost increase.

“We are going to look to mitigate and bring down the costs over time,” Sigmund said.

But opponents of the project say the government is on the wrong track completely, and that the existing tunnel should be fixed now instead of 16 years.

They cite former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s repair of the L-train tunnel while keeping trains running.

“If one of the current tunnels goes out, that would be a problem, so fix those now,” Sally Gellert, chair of the Lackawanna Coalition, which advocates on behalf of New Jersey rail commuters, said. “Use the L-train method that keeps things running, and fixed, and then think about adding what we need, which is probably one new tunnel, one new track.

It is a path that Gateway supporters reject as too risky to service.

“It has to get done,” Sigmund said. “If it doesn’t get done, and you have the existing tunnel close down or even one tube shut down, it is catastrophic to the region and the nation’s economy.”

Right now, the federal government is slated to pay for half, leaving the other half split between New York and New Jersey.

But Gateway officials say they want the federal government to pony up more money through the new infrastructure law, which could shave a billion and a half dollars from the additional cost.

Construction is slated to begin in 2024.