Amtrak Gateway Tunnels

Ridgefielder wrote: ↑Thu May 20, 2021 12:33 pm

alewifebp wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 11:13 pm And I'd argue, given the state of several high profile infrastructure projects in Europe, they are not happening any faster or without huge price tags. Stuttgart 21 or Berlin Brandenburg come to mind as two examples, but more exist. And just up the block In NYC, it took over a year just to be able to get the TBM in the ground for the Second Ave Subway extension. And that was only to add a few extra stations, and some of the work had already been done.

London's Crossrail, a/k/a the Elizabeth Line, springs to mind. Approved in 2008, construction started in 2009; originally to open in 2018, now scheduled for sometime in '23/24; initial budget 14.8bn sterling, now at 18.7bn and counting...

Over here; Boondoggle

Over there; Pink Elephant

It's white elephant

Yup, a pink elephant is what a drunk sees lol.

Mr. Benton, can't speak for ANZAC at present; possibly come next April, if deemed safe by your authorities, I can.

In Europe, the pachyderm is Pink; maybe some on your Worldwide Forum might hold differently, in which case I will certainly defer to them.

Jeff , the stories i could tell , all Rail related of course.
Mr Norman ,I'm sure its white elephant , at least in london . I remember a job site i was on , the management was not impressed , when a bunch of us wrote "White Elephant Engineering " on the front of our hard hats .

Let us agree that it's a waste of money spent largely on beer and not actual engineering and building.

Let us also agree that Governor Cuomo is reaching retirement age and he really should take early retirement. I mean, NY Governor for 10 years?!?

Final EIS expected to be approved and released today, per NJ.COM:

https://www.nj.com/politics/2021/05/lon ... -says.html

President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday will release a long-delayed environmental impact statement for the Gateway Tunnel project, removing another hurdle in the multiyear effort to get federal funding for the new train tunnel under the Hudson River, according to an official familiar with the matter, who spoke under condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcement.

The federal government and the states of New Jersey and New York also still must agree on how the project is will be funded, and the Federal Transit Administration must raise the project’s rating in order to make Gateway eligible for funding.

The full FEIS (Final EIS) and Record of Decision is now online.

Hudson Tunnel Project FEIS

NYTimes on the tunnel:

At Long Last, a New Rail Tunnel Under the Hudson River Can Be Built
After four years of stalling by the Trump administration, officials in Washington approved the $11.6 billion project for federal funding.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/nyre ... pport.html

An encouraging development, Mr. Artman, but let's slow down.

The $11.6B will be included in the "infrastructure legislation" to be introduced in Congress, but introduction and enactment are two different birds - and not always of the same feather!

Let's save the jubilation, including from me (since some around here think I'm Anti-Amtrak), for when Joe sits down, surrounded by a "cast of thousands" and a like number of pens, and signs the legislation Congress has presented to him.

Read parts of the EIS. One reason Amtrak insisting on complete shut down of each old tunnel is that old bug- a- boo are PCBs. Not a problem on the "L" tunnel. Evidently Amtrak worried about GG-1s leaking PCBs onto the track and ballast structure. Amtrak will not know until concrete floor is removed and tested.

A surprise also is that the new tunnel bores will not provide the same capacity of the 2 old bores so the 2 new ones and 1 old one will provide same and some more capacity. Must be track configuration at "A" not as fluid as present bores ? Just one more reason to build Penn south.

Another problem is that safety and fire systems of old tunnel bores are not independent of each other and will require modifications before work on first bore can start.

The Times article noted by Mr. Artman appears Front Page, "below the fold", this morning.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:The $11.6B will be included in the "infrastructure legislation" to be introduced in Congress, but introduction and enactment are two different birds - and not always of the same feather!

I'm not sold on the idea that this project is dependent on the infrastructure legislation. That is one potential source of several for the funding. I would strongly agree it's administration's preferred approach but there are other funding pools that could be used.



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Yep. It's probably a safer bet to pursue it separately since there is probably more chance of getting GOP support for Gateway vs a larger project that might have pork in it... it would also move faster.

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From this "little gathering" yesterday, it appears that 10001 "Beech Grove" has been returned to service. Mr. Anderson had withdrawn it from such:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/nyre ... ny-nj.html

Fair Use:

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg got a close-up look at the crumbling state of New York City’s most critical rail link on Monday and vowed that the Biden administration was committed to getting a new train tunnel built under the Hudson River.

After touring the decaying 110-year-old Hudson tunnel in an Amtrak car crammed full of elected officials from New York and New Jersey, Mr. Buttigieg sounded convinced of the urgency of completing a second tunnel. The long-delayed project, with an estimated cost of $11.6 billion, is vitally important to the national economy, he said at a news conference in Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan.