Amtrak crews recently began the first long-term track outage supporting the East River Tunnel Rehabilitation Project (ERT Rehab). The project is a critical infrastructure investment in restoring two tunnel tubes damaged by Superstorm Sandy (Line 1 and Line 2).

According to a company statement, this is Amtrak's largest planned outage in recent history, an important undertaking planned in coordination with their 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 rehabilitated entirely to ensure another 100 years of service.

The ERT Rehab project will involve demolishing the existing tunnel systems down to concrete liners and then reconstructing the tunnels with modern, state-of-the-art tunnel systems.

The construction will occur in one tunnel tube at a time under a full closure for maximum efficiency, beginning with Line 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 emergencies and minimize the impact of the track outage to the maximum extent possible.

Mitigation Work Ensures Smooth Service During Tunnel Rehab

In the months and years leading up to the long-term outage, which began over Memorial Day weekend, Amtrak 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 the bench wall, sealing the tunnel liner to prevent water infiltration, replacing the third rail, and making signal and power upgrades throughout Lines 1, 3, and 4.

Since mitigation work has been completed for Lines 3 and 4, work crews are using the first 10 days of the long-term outage to complete the remaining mitigations focused on the final "hardening" of the infrastructure in Line 1.

This work began over Memorial Day weekend and incurred no interruptions to planned service. Mitigation plans include power cable relocation and block tie replacements and are scheduled to conclude before the team moves to Line 2 on Monday, June 2.