Amtrak kicks off first long-term track outage for East River Tunnel Rehabilitation Project

Amtrak has kicked off the first long-term track outage in support of the East River Tunnel Rehabilitation Project that will restore the two tunnel tubes damaged by Superstorm Sandy (Line 1 and Line 2). Amtrak says the century-old tunnels have reached the end of their useful lives and must be completely rehabilitated for another 100 years of service. 

The 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, Amtrak notes three of the four East River Tunnels will remain available for service to ensure continued Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit service.  

Preparation activities and mitigation efforts (Line 1) 

In the months and years leading up to the long-term outage that began over Memorial Day weekend, Amtrak says it 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, including repairing damaged sections of bench wall, 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, Amtrak says 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. Amtrak notes the 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 before the project team moves into Line 2.