Whether any of us live to see Amtrak’s Gateway Tunnel become a reality remains to be seen, but it has a few champions in Washington and an assist from Superstorm Sandy. Senator Chuck Schumer, who has recently adopted the cause, announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation will deliver the $185 million Amtrak has requested to preserve space in the Hudson Yards area for two more Hudson River rail tunnels. The money is part of the Sandy relief and fortification funds.
Specifically, the money will go toward an 800-foot-long tunnel box between 10th and 11th Avenues that will carve out the right-of-way for a pair of flood-resistant rail tubes. Without his money, Related Companies’ construction at the Hudson Yards would have moved forward blocking the opportunity to build Gateway for the foreseeable future. Last week, though, Amtrak, the LIRR and Related Companies reached an agreement on the construction of the tunnel box, and the federal dollars assure progress will go forward, inch by inch.
“When Sandy flooded our tunnels it exposed a fatal flaw in our already maxed-out transit infrastructure and demonstrated beyond a doubt we needed a new flood-resistant train-tunnel into and out of Manhattan. This project will build the gate in the ‘Gateway’ tunnel and secures the future of rail for New York City and all of the Northeast Corridor, making our rail infrastructure more efficient and much more flood resistant from storms like Sandy,” Schumer said in a statement. “Today’s announcement is the first step of a long-term mitigation investment in New York. I am pleased that Secretary LaHood will award this much-needed funding to preserve a path for new train tunnels into Manhattan.”
6 comments
$185 million to build a steel box one block long?
It is ever so slightly more complex than that.
And it will be concrete not steel.
See, for example, here
http://bkabak.wpengine.com/201.....r-gateway/
And even more detail
http://web.mta.info/mta/news/b.....ummary.pdf
Presumably, to buy the rights for it too. Maybe I’m missing something, but I’m usually pretty quick to call BS on costs. In this case, maybe it’s steep and maybe it’s not, but it doesn’t seem so retarded.
They are basically building the part of the tunnel between the two avenues — both tunnels. It is substantially cheaper to build it now before Related puts the buildings on top, The costs practically double if they just provision for the tunnels but don’t build them — there is a report of that somewhere on the FRA site. This does not seem much more expensive than the Second Avenue Subway tunnels to me once we account for the fact that there will be substantial buildings on top of the tunnel (which it will have to support). Also they have to demolish and rebuild substantial portion of the LIRR yard and maintenance buildings.
Nothing on the 1 train derailment at 125th, Ben?
I was en route to the Yankee game on Wednesday when the derailment happened, and by the time I woke up this morning, it had been resolved. If there’s a follow-up, I’ll write about it.