Dive Brief:
- Amtrak expects to reopen the East River Tunnel Line 2 in New York City in August, about a month later than originally planned, said Laura Mason, executive vice president at Amtrak, during a June progress update meeting.
- During catenary installation, construction crews found more than half of the 203 ceiling locations had voids. This required engineering changes before crews could ultimately mount support hardware, said Mason.
- The “tunnel remains safe” and Amtrak is “not worried about the structural integrity,” Mason said. She added the overall rehabilitation project is still on track for completion in late 2027, according to Amtrak.
Dive Insight:
Construction kicked off last year on the $1.6 billion East River Tunnel project, a critical link on the Northeast Corridor, the country’s busiest passenger rail line.
The project aims to repair damage caused by Hurricane Sandy and update the century-old structure for the next 100 years, according to Amtrak. Four tubes make up the tunnel, two of which require significant repairs.
Amtrak now expects to reopen the first tunnel, Line 2, in August, about a year after extensive demolition and construction. The second tunnel, Line 1, will close later this year for reconstruction, said Mason.
“We intend to start the Line 1 outage this fall, immediately following the infrastructure hardening, and we’re working with our partners to refresh that track work schedule to make sure we can complete the hardening work before we start the Line 1 outage,” said Mason during the June 17 meeting. “The Line 1 outage currently is still planned at 13 months, although we will be taking the lessons learned from Line 2 and incorporate them to Line 1 and see if we can make any schedule adjustments.”
One of the biggest construction takeaways from the first outage was the decision to fully close each tunnel tube rather than rely on night and weekend construction windows, added Mason.
“Ultimately, we determined that a continuous contractor controlled outage is the most cost-effective, efficient and safest method for delivering the program,” said Mason. “Relying on night and weekend outages would have significantly increased the cost and extended the schedule.”
Mason said the continuous outage allowed crews to rebuild drainage systems and repair the tunnel liner without having to worry about repeatedly installing and removing temporary railroad systems between work windows. By shutting the entire line down, contractors could work on the repairs with uninterrupted access, she said.
Crews then unpacked a second lesson after the demolition of the tunnel’s existing bench walls, added Mason. Once crews demolished the walls, they discovered collapsed cable conduits with little spare capacity and draining systems clogged beyond use.
These discoveries reinforced the need for a comprehensive rebuild rather than surface-level repairs, according to Amtrak.
“Going through this outage, I think we have been assured that we made the right decision,” said Mason. “The drainage system was not accessible without this bench wall demolition, which means we never would have been able to fix it had we not done the demo.”
To fix the issue, the team reduced the hydrostatic pressure on the tunnel liner. That greatly reduced the water intrusion, said Mason.
“Definitely one of the lessons learned we’ll take into the Line 1 outage is how to resequence the work to do this part sooner,” said Mason. “How do we address that drainage and hopefully reduce the number of leaks that we need to chase.”
