Work has kicked off on New York City’s $1.6 billion East River Tunnel Project to repair Hurricane Sandy damage and update the century-old structure to weather the next 100 years of service, Amtrak said on May 27.
The East River Tunnel is a critical link on the Northeast Corridor, the country’s busiest passenger rail line. The overhaul is part of Amtrak’s broader effort to address longstanding infrastructure vulnerabilities exacerbated by extreme weather.
The tunnel is made up of four tubes, which opened in 1910, two of which require significant repairs and comprehensive reconstruction, per Amtrak. Hurricane Sandy flooded the aging tunnels with saltwater in 2012, which damaged electrical, signal and structural systems.
A Skanska and E-J Electric Installation Co. joint venture, based in Stockholm and New York City respectively, is the construction contractor. The team will demolish all existing tunnel systems down to the concrete liner, then completely restore two tubes, according to Amtrak.
The construction manager is a JV made up of New York City-based STV and Edison, New Jersey-headquartered Naik Consulting Group, PC, which will assist Amtrak with management of the construction contractor, document control, schedule and budget oversight and community outreach support. Amtrak tapped Dallas-based Jacobs for design.
Work is primarily funded by a $1.26 billion Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act grant awarded by the Federal Rail Administration in 2023, according to Amtrak. The project partners — MTA, NJ Transit and Amtrak — will foot the bill for the remaining portion. The project has a project labor agreement with North America’s Building Trades Unions covering Amtrak’s major civil engineering work.
The work will take place in one tunnel tube at a time under a full closure for maximum efficiency, beginning with Line 2, per Amtrak. The remaining three tunnels will continue to carry Amtrak, the Long Island Rail Road and NJ Transit trains. However, New York officials recently demanded that Amtrak repair the tunnels without a full shutdown because they are concerned about impacts to rail traffic in and out of Penn Station, CBS News reported.
The scope of the project also includes:
- Spot repair and patching of the concrete tunnel liner.
- Reconstruction of the bench walls in a modern high-low configuration.
- Conversion from ballasted track to a modern direct fixation track system with integrated drainage.
- New fire and smoke detection systems.
- Replacing and modernizing signal, traction power, standpipe and drainage systems.
Preliminary construction activities began last year in Sunnyside Yard, a rail yard in Queens, according to Amtrak. The overall project is scheduled to wrap up in 2027.
