Since the start of the long-term outage on May 23, the East River Tunnel Rehab Project has been steadily advancing through early, high-impact milestones. As detailed in past updates, we worked with our contractor to complete all decommissioning tasks followed by safely removing all assets from within the tunnel, clearing the way for major demolition activities.

Outside the tunnel, we recently accomplished another key milestone by successfully placing the first of four planned signal huts included in this project. These small buildings house signaling equipment that is essential to running a safe and reliable railroad. All four huts for this project were built in Lancaster, PA, by Amtrak’s skilled in-house engineering department, before being transported by truck to the East River Tunnel project site.

Through the rest of July, the focus has shifted to removing the running rail, ties, and ballast. Crews will begin removing the tunnel’s embedded cables from the concrete bench walls and preparing the space for full-scale demolition to begin in August.

It’s a complex undertaking, but steady progress is being made, and we remain on schedule! Each task completed brings us one step closer to delivering a renewed East River Tunnel for the next 100 years of Amtrak, LIRR, and, eventually, Metro-North customers.