Major tunneling work is nearly ready to leave the station at Amtrak’s largest-ever single infrastructure investment, at the same time that the passenger railroad company is adjusting the project’s scope.
Construction has continued on the $6 billion Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel Replacement program, according to a Tuesday announcement. ADVANCE, an AECOM-Jacobs joint venture, is the project delivery partner.
However, in response to challenges posed by construction market conditions, Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration have had to get creative, the release said, in order to refine costs and streamline plans.
That included eliminating an intermediate ventilation facility and a smaller tunnel connecting it to reduce construction impacts on the community. The ventilation facility was one of the complaints raised by the citizens of Reservoir Hill, a neighborhood in Baltimore, who filed suit in 2024 alleging work would subject the community to noise pollution, solid waste and rodent problems, CBS News reported.
The project team also raised the future tunnel’s track alignment at its deepest point approximately 10 to 22 feet, reducing excavation needs and improving long-term operations. The tunnel will maintain a maximum depth of about 150 feet below street level at the affected location.
Construction progress
In the last year, work advanced on the new Mulberry Street railroad bridge, the first of five being reconstructed as part of the overall program, Amtrak said.
In March, teams accomplished a major milestone, breaking through the final section of rock pillar separating both sides of a 345-foot-long utility tunnel. When finished in 2027, the tunnel will carry water, sewer, communications and electrical utilities underneath the tracks.
Finally, Herrenknecht, the boring machine manufacturer, has gotten to work on the two machines that will bore the tubes in the new tunnel. The first machine is 50% complete, Amtrak said.
The initiative aims to relieve congestion at one of the tightest rail corridors in the U.S. by replacing an aging, 1.4-mile track with a new route.
The upgrade will create the Frederick Douglass Tunnel, boring two new tubes for electrified Amtrak and MARC passenger trains, as well as a new West Baltimore MARC station, 10 miles of rail infrastructure upgrades and local street and bridge improvements.
A JV of Clark Construction and Stacy Witbeck won a construction manager at risk contract in 2023 for the southern approach. That job includes new tracks and railroad infrastructure south of the future tunnel.
A separate JV of Kiewit and J.F. Shea Construction in 2024 won the CMAR contract for the design and construction of the new tunnel.
“Replacing the 153-year-old B&P Tunnel is critical to improving safety and reliability along the Northeast Corridor, America’s busiest passenger railroad,” Roger Harris, Amtrak president, said in the release. “Successful delivery of this program will continue to rely on support and collaboration from all our partners to address and mitigate current and future challenges.”
The opening of the tunnel is slated for 2036, Harris said in the release.
