President Biden kicks off Baltimore rail tunnel project

The Baltimore-Potomac Tunnel Replacement Program will build a new rail tunnel with two tubes along an alignment with softer curves; ventilation and emergency egress facilities; new signalling systems, overhead catenary, and track; five new roadway and railroad bridges in the area surrounding the tunnel; and a new West Baltimore station.? It will be named in honour of the civil rights leader and abolitionist, Frederick Douglass.  

The current 2.25km (1.4-mile) Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel is the oldest on the Northeast Corridor. It is also the largest bottleneck between Washington and New Jersey and a single point of failure for the nine million Amtrak and Maryland Area Commuter passengers using it annually. The tunnel’s tight curvature and steep incline require trains to reduce speed to 50km/h (30mph).

The new tunnel will treble capacity and allow trains to travel at up to 177km/h (110mph).

At what the White House calls the “kickoff event”, President Biden will announce the State of Maryland and Amtrak have signed an agreement, which includes a US$450m (£363m) commitment from the state’s transportation agency for the tunnel replacement project.

The total cost of the programme is expected to be approximately US$6bn (£4.84bn), of which Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding could contribute up to US$4.7bn (£3.61bn).? While the project received US$44m (£35.5m) through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act for preliminary engineering and permitting, it lacked a viable funding source for construction until the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.?  

Early works, such as demolition, utility relocations and select track work, will begin this year.? ?

In December last year, Amtrak announced it was seeking a delivery partner for the project.

In November, the Federal Railroad Administration also announced its Northeast Corridor Inventory, outlining major backlog projects that will get funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including the Hudson River Tunnel and East River Tunnel in New York, the Connecticut River Bridge, and the Susquehanna River Bridge and Frederick Douglass Tunnel.?