For the second straight year, federal infrastructure spending lands on our review of the year’s top stories (last year, it was tied for No. 6). Some of the dollars awarded in 2023 are part of the 2024 story, as big-ticket projects began moving forward after long waits for financial support, with impacts that will be measured for decades.
Consider the Northeast Corridor. After President Joe Biden announced some $16.4 billion for 25 corridor projects in late 2023, Amtrak began awarding contracts for some of those projects and saw the start of construction on others. Among those reaching construction milestones:
— The Frederick Douglass Tunnel. Some $4.7 billion in funding for the project to replace the 1873-vintage B&P tunnel, a long-time Northeast Corridor bottleneck, was announced in 2023. In February this year, Amtrak selected the company to build and equip the two tubes of the 2-mile long tunnel, as well as related replacement of road and rail bridges and other rail infrastructure. In April, it awarded a “delivery partner” contract, under which a joint venture of two major infrastructure firms will oversee project design, construction, and other administration of the project — a contract in which it shares the project risks with Amtrak.
— The Susquehanna River Bridge. A July ceremony marked the start of early work on the $2.7 billion project, which received more than $2 billion in federal funding in 2023. The project will replace a single two-track bridge built in 1906 with two two-track spans between Havre de Grace and Perryville, Md., a location that sees more than 100 Amtrak, MARC commuter, and freight trains daily. Major construction is expected to start in 2025, with completion estimated for 2036.
— The Connecticut River Bridge. Groundbreaking was held in September for the $1.3 billion project to replace the bridge between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme, Conn.; funding includes more than $825 million awarded in 2023. The current bridge dates to 1907; its replacement will be able to accommodate track speeds of 70 mph instead of the current 45 mph.
— East River Tunnel rehabilitation. Repairs of damage sustained from 2012’s Hurricane Sandy received $1.26 in federal funding last year; the construction contract for the $1.6 billion project was awarded in July, and early work has begun, leading to adjustments to Amtrak schedules in and out of New York Penn Station — although some of the schedule changes have been pushed back to March as a result of concerns voiced by New York elected officials.
Two other major projects, the Portal North Bridge and Hudson River Tunnel, also continued to move forward. Work on the Hudson Tunnel is advancing quietly after work started in New York and New Jersey in 2023. More visible is progress on the Portal North Bridge, which will replace a problematic movable span from 1910. In November, the almost 2.5-mile-long bridge reached the 75% completion mark with the delivery of the first of three massive arches.
The corridor received a further funding infusion of $1.5 billion this year under the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail program. Much of that money went to projects to address the corridor’s aging electrical infrastructure; another group of awards addressed station projects in Baltimore, Washington, and New York Penn Station. The electrical systems became a major issue this year with a series of failures in New Jersey that impacted both Amtrak and NJ Transit, leading — after some finger-pointing — to a joint effort to address the problems.
CRISI, INFRA and more
It wasn’t just big NEC projects that benefited from increased federal funding. The Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements, or CRISI, program handed out $2.4 billion to 122 projects nationwide, many funding projects that smaller railroads might otherwise have found to be out of reach. That program has soared the past two years, going from $368 million for 46 projects in 2022 to $1.4 billion for 70 projects in 2023 to this year’s numbers.
“When you are talking about big rehab projects — fixing a $10 million bridge, or re-laying 10 miles of rail with modern welded rail, or replacing 20,000 ties over a long section of track, or changing out four 50-year-old locomotives for four modern Tier 4 locomotives — you’re just talking about an amount of funds that is not realistically achievable for most short lines in a normal course of business, no matter how great of a success story it is,” Chuck Baker, president of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, told News Wire. “That’s where CRISI has been a real godsend.”
Other notable federal awards include those in the Mega Grant (National Infrastructure Project Assistance) and Infrastructure for Rebuilding America, or INFRA, announced on the same day in October. A portion of CREATE’s 75th Street Corridor project in Chicago received awards from both programs totaling more than $290 million; also funded through both programs (for a total of $146.6 million) was remaking of a major intersection in Phoenix that includes new bridges over BNSF Railway tracks. Both programs are for all modes of transportation, but a total of 10 rail-related projects were among the 44 receiving more than $4.2 billion.
Meanwhile, some of the projects that received funding in 2023 face a more uncertain future. A number of the 69 projects that received $500,000 grants for preliminary studies under the FRA’s Corridor Identification and Development Program — supporting proposals for new or expanded passenger rail operations nationwide — announced that they had launched the scoping studies that are the first phase of the project. But that program envisioned seven-to-10-year timelines for the launch of new projects, and its support under the incoming Trump administration is an open question, given the first Trump administration’s effort in 2020 to cut Amtrak spending by more than 20%, including elimination of all long-distance services.
Previous News Wire coverage:
Amtrak selects builder for Frederick Douglass Tunnel, Feb. 6, 2024
More than 30 rail-related projects receive funding under federal ‘Reconnecting Communities’ program, March 16, 2024
Amtrak chooses joint AECOM/Jacobs venture to oversee Frederick Douglass Tunnel project, April 3, 2024
Amtrak, NJ Transit pledge to work together to address Northeast Corridor issues, June 28, 2024
Amtrak awards contract for East River Tunnel repairs, July 15, 2024.
Amtrak breaks ground on Connecticut River Bridge, Sept. 6, 2024
Chicago CREATE project receives both Mega, INFRA grants, Oct. 21, 2024.
FRA awards $2.4 billion in CRISI grants to 122 projects, Oct. 29, 2024
ASLRRA president discusses CRISI’s short line transformation, Nov. 12, 2024
FRA awards $1.5 billion for 19 Northeast Corridor infrastructure projects, Nov. 15, 2024
First arch now in place on New Jersey’s Portal North Bridge, Nov. 27, 2024
I still don’t understand why it will take 11 years to finish the Susquehanna Bridge Project if construction has started in 2024 (which is removal of some other old bridge piers if my memory is correct).
Have you noticed much of the ex-PRR infrastructure being replaced had been built for the 1910 opening of Penn Station NY?
Actually I didn’t notice, so thanks for that info.
Whether PRR or any of the successors, the number of river crossings – thus, movable bridges — is scary. Imagine of any of them were as troublesome as the drawbridge south of Chicago Union Station.