Amtrak Secures Funds to Build World’s Most Expensive Box

Federal Hurricane Sandy relief funds are dedicating $185 million to the newest installment of Amtrak’s Gateway project: an 800-foot-long concrete

Amtrak's trans-Hudson Gateway tunnel is designed to be flood-proof. (Photo by: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Amtrak’s trans-Hudson Gateway tunnel is designed to be flood-proof. (Photo by: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Federal Hurricane Sandy relief funds are dedicating $185 million to the newest installment of Amtrak’s Gateway project: an 800-foot-long concrete box on the West Side. How is Superstorm Sandy relevant to this underground structure, you might ask? Good question.

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If you were among the hundreds of thousands of passengers commuting between New York and New Jersey last year, you probably experienced firsthand the flooding of several major century-old train tunnels in the Northeast Corridor. Although Amtrak doesn’t specify the exact construction materials to be used in its Gateway project, the unique end goal for these trans-Hudson train tunnels is that they will be flood-proof.

The problem is that the $185 million covers only a concrete casing that stretches between 30th and 33rd streets, from 10th to 11th avenues, below the Hudson Yards development. Its purpose is to preserve what Amtrak called a “possible” right-of-way for two tracks of train tunnels that may eventually lead to Penn Station.

In other words, even once the concrete box is completed, it won’t serve a single purpose if the rest of the project goes unfunded—and the estimated cost for the entire Gateway project is $14.5 billion. Its projected completion date is around 2025. Who’s to say today’s concrete casing idea won’t be replaced by a better, more advanced flood-resistant solution over a decade from now?

If this project falls through, all we’re going to have is a vast, flood-proof box underground.

Amtrak Secures Funds to Build World’s Most Expensive Box