Amtrak Capital Delivery Leadership Tours ERT Rehab Project Progress

Published: June 17, 2025

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Amtrak Acting Senior Vice President of Capital Delivery Jim Short recently visited the East River Tunnel Rehab Project site for a first-hand look at the progress made by Amtrak and our contractor over the first few weeks of the long-term outage.

Due to the strong work of Amtrak crews during the hardening and decommissioning phases mentioned in previous updates, our contractor was able to mobilize their crews just ahead of schedule. The construction contractor is a joint venture of Skanska and E-J Electric Installation Co., two major companies with extensive experience delivering complex demolition, construction, electrical, and communications projects around the United States and the world.

Over the past week, the project team has:

Completed decommissioning activities;
Begun installing temporary brackets and messenger cables, to support power during upcoming phases of work;
Begun removing old signal cases (which will be salvaged and used in other tunnels), third rail cover board, and handrails;
Advanced work at the future 32nd Street temporary access point;
Prepared sites for new duct bank and signal infrastructure, which will be installed outside the tunnel;
And much more.

To date, at our peak we have hosted nearly 20 hi-rail trucks (which can operate on roads and rails) simultaneously working in the tunnel during the same shift. These activities will grow as the project ramps up, with plans to support upwards of 600 total workers at the peak of the project, many of which will be working in the tunnel.