Ninety ft under the East River, Amtrak’s 110 year-old prepare tunnels are slowly filling with salty water dripping on high-voltage cables as metal is almost corroded to mud.
Above floor, heads of Amtrak and the Metropolitan Transit Company are publicly sparring about who ought to take the blame for the hundreds of thousands of riders about to undergo prepare delays beginning Might 23 when one of many tracks within the tunnel is closed for much-needed repairs.
Liam McQuat, vp of engineering companies at Amtrak, stated there’s no options to the corporate’s restore plan that might squeeze one other 100 years out of the East River Tunnel with “minimal intervention.”
“This has been 12 years in the making, and there’s been an awful lot of analysis ongoing over that 12 years to develop a solution,” McQuat stated.
Amtrak engineers have insisted the MTA has been actively engaged on Amtrak’s much-maligned $1.6 billion service plan behind-the-scenes — even approving the plan in October 2023. However MTA heads have continued to publicly distance themselves from the upcoming delays.
“It’s Amtrak’s operation. It’s their decision to make. It’s their responsibility,” Lengthy Island Rail Highway president Rob Free stated at a press convention Thursday.
“We were forced to make this decision,” Free stated.
Amtrak engineers took reporters on an in a single day tour into one of many corroded tunnels within the in a single day hours Wednesday into Thursday to show their level that the repairs can’t be accomplished on nights and weekends as Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams and MTA board members have all publicly urged in latest weeks.
That will solely give staff three hours per night time to work on the dilapidated tunnels, McQuat stated.
As an alternative, Amtrak is insisting on a full shutdown of one of many tunnel lanes for the subsequent 13 months. As soon as development is full staff would take a three-month interlude earlier than beginning repairs on one other monitor within the tunnel, which might even be closed for no less than 13 months for repairs.
Building ought to finish late 2027 assuming no delays, McQuat stated.
The tunnel was walloped by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Rain and flooding from the superstorm entered the tunnel from each the Queens and Manhattan sides in addition to one of many shafts, in keeping with an Amtrak spokesperson.
On the tunnel tour, Amtrak engineers highlighted 12,000 volt cables encased in concrete bench partitions which can be eroding and crumbling due to the salt water that’s steadily leaking into the two.5-mile tunnel.
Salt water seeping right into a cracked bench wall over time will harm the cables, which might result in explosions and fires, stated Derick Hallahan Derick Hallahan, assistant vp of main packages, tunnels and programs for Amtrak.
“As that water comes down, it is dripping over some of the power cables,” Hallahan stated.
The water could cause harmful situations like arcing, which is when {an electrical} present jumps to a different space sparking a fireplace, Hallahan stated.
It could actually take staff a number of nights in a tunnel to repair a damaged cable, Cooper stated.
The crumbling bench partitions are additionally alleged to act as an egress for restore crews and riders throughout emergency evacuations, stated David Cooper, senior principal undertaking supervisor at Amtrak. However the partitions are falling aside so unhealthy staff needed to place metallic sheets on prime as a makeshift bridge.
“In a lot of cases, we’ll chip away concrete that looks like it’s going to fall so it doesn’t fall on the track and a train hits it,” Cooper stated.
The tracks may also endure updates to cease standing water from gathering. At the moment the traces have ballasted tracks, however Amtrak will replace to trendy direct-fixation tracks, that are extra steady and permit for higher drainage, Cooper stated.
MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber has urged Amtrak observe the lead of the MTA, which closed the L prepare monitor throughout nights and weekends when staff wanted to restore a bench wall in 2019. That work was additionally wanted as a result of destruction of Hurricane Sandy.
However the repairs wanted within the East River Tunnel are a lot higher than the rehab wanted within the L prepare tunnel, McQuat stated.
MTA heads have blasted Amtrak’s plan, insisting closing one of many tunnel’s 4 tracks will trigger untenable prepare delays. However Amtrak plans to go full pace forward with the closure as there isn’t a plan B, engineers insisted to reporters Thursday.
The tunnel’s cut-off date has already been delayed.
Amtrak introduced the closure had been pushed again from Might 9 to Might 23 – as a result of the MTA was nonetheless ending the LIRR’s East-Certain Reroute (EBRR) undertaking, which must be accomplished earlier than work on the tunnel can begin.
“We’re currently working with the MTA to confirm,” Hallahan stated, including the undertaking goes by means of “final commissioning.”
“We’re ready to start that longterm outage,” Hallahan stated.
