The decision came months after the administration announced it stopped $16 billion in support for the project, citing the previous government shutdown and what a top federal budget official said were concerns about unconstitutional spending around diversity, equity and inclusion principles.

US District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas in Manhattan approved a request by New York and New Jersey for a temporary restraining order barring the administration from withholding funds while the states seek a preliminary injunction to keep the money flowing while their case plays out in court.

“The Court is also convinced that the Plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm without an injunction,” the judge wrote. “The plaintiffs have sufficiently demonstrated that the public interest would be harmed by a delay in a critical infrastructure project.”

The White House and US Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment late Friday.

New York Attorney General Letitia James called the decision “a critical victory for workers and commuters in New York and New Jersey.”

“I am grateful that the court acted quickly to block this senseless funding freeze, which threatens to derail a project our entire region relies on,” James said in a statement. “The Hudson Tunnel Project is one of the nation’s most important infrastructure projects, and we will continue to fight to ensure that construction continues without unnecessary federal interference.”

The panel overseeing the project, the Gateway Development Commission, said work would stop late Friday afternoon due to a federal funding freeze, resulting in the immediate loss of about 1,000 jobs as well as thousands more in the future.

It was not immediately clear when the work would resume. In an evening statement, the commission said: “As soon as the funds are released, we will move quickly to restart site operations and get our workers back to work.”

The new tunnel is intended to ease the strain on an existing, more than 110-year-old tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey for Amtrak and commuter trains, where delays can lead to backups up and down the East Coast.

New York and New Jersey sued for stopping funding this week, as did the Gateway Development Commission, moving to restore support for the Trump administration.

The suspension is seen as a way for the Trump administration to put pressure on Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, whom the White House blames for last year’s government shutdown. the the shutdown has been resolved a few weeks later.

Speaking to the media on Air Force One, Trump was asked about reports that he would unfreeze funding for the tunnel project if Schumer agreed to a plan to rename Penn Station in New York and Dulles International Airport in Virginia after Trump.

“Chuck Schumer suggested that to me, about changing the name of Penn Station to Trump Station. Dulles Airport is really different,” Trump replied.

Schumer responded on social media: “Absolutely false. He knows it. Everyone knows it.

At a hearing on the state case earlier in Manhattan, Shankar Duraiswamy, of the New Jersey attorney general’s office, told the judge that the states needed “immediate relief” for the damage and costs that would occur if the project were to stop.

“There is literally a huge hole in the ground in North Bergen,” he said, referring to the New Jersey city and claiming that leaving the sites, even temporarily, “would pose a significant safety and public health threat.”

Duraiswamy said the problem with the current shutdown is that even a short stoppage could cause longer delays because workers would be laid off and go to other jobs and would find it difficult to remobilize quickly when funding becomes available. And, he added, “any long-term suspension of funding will torpedo the project.”

Tara Schwartz, an assistant US attorney who argued for the government, disagreed with the “parade of horrors” described by lawyers for the states.

He noted that the states have not even clarified how long the sites can be maintained by the Gateway Development Commission. So the judge asked Duraiswamy, and he said that they can maintain the sites for a few weeks and maybe a few months, but that the states will continue to suffer irreparable damage because the trains will continue to be late because they rely on an old tunnel.

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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut.