Amtrak crews have kicked off the first long-term track outage in support of the $1.6bn East River Tunnel Rehabilitation Project (ERT Rehab), a critical infrastructure investment that will restore the two tunnel tubes damaged by Superstorm Sandy (Line 1 & Line 2).
The East River Tunnel (ERT) consists of four tubes connecting New York City to destinations east, and is used by Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), and NJ TRANSIT trains. The prime contractor for the project is a Skanska EJ Electric Joint Venture.
This is Amtrak’s largest planned outage in recent history, an important undertaken planned in coordination with our partners over several years.
While still structurally sound and safe for passenger use, the reliability of the systems inside the tubes has continued to deteriorate since the 2012 storm. The century-old tunnels have reached the end of their useful lives and must be completely rehabilitated for another 100 years of service.
The ERT Rehab project will involve demolishing the existing tunnel systems down to concrete liners, then reconstructing the tunnels with modern, state-of-the-art tunnel systems. The work will take place in one tunnel tube at a time under a full closure for maximum efficiency, beginning with Line 2 on June 2. Throughout the project, three of the four East River Tunnels will remain available for service to ensure continued Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road, and NJ TRANSIT service. Amtrak crews are on standby throughout the Penn Station complex to respond quickly to any emergencies and minimize the impact of the track outage to the maximum extent possible. We appreciate the cooperation of our partners in modifying schedules and operations to accommodate the work.
In the months and years leading up to the long-term outage that began over Memorial Day weekend, Amtrak has proactively performed work in the tunnels that will remain open to prepare them for additional traffic and reduce the risk of infrastructure failures during the three-track operation. This work has included repairing damaged sections of benchwall, sealing the tunnel liner to prevent water infiltration, replacing third rail, and making signal and power upgrades throughout Lines 1, 3, and 4.
With mitigation work completed in Lines 3 and 4, crews are using the first 10 days of the long-term outage to complete remaining mitigations focused on final “hardening” of the infrastructure in Line 1. This work – which began over Memorial Day weekend and incurred no interruptions to planned service – includes power cable relocation and block tie replacements. It is scheduled to continue through next weekend, before the project team moves into Line 2 on Monday, June 2.
Last week, in a productive meeting with Governor Hochul and MTA leadership, we reiterated our commitment to minimizing impacts to passengers throughout the project, including the transition from Line 1 to Line 2 next week. This includes our detailed plan to provide around-the-clock engineering coverage during the outage, more frequent inspections as track access time permits, strategically positioned rescue equipment, and more. With LIRR and NJ TRANSIT, we will closely monitor service during construction and make modifications to the plan, if needed, to ensure reliability of passenger service while fixing this critical infrastructure.
The approximately $1.6B project is primarily funded by the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA), thanks to a $1.26B federal grant awarded by FRA in November 2023. The remaining portion will be funded by the project partners – MTA, NJ TRANSIT and Amtrak.
Works are expected to be completed in 2027.
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