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Sunday, December 25th, 2022

Northeast’s century-old rail bridges, tunnels land $9 billion overhaul

Author:     Michael Laris and Luz Lazo
Source:     The Washington Post
Publication Date:     December 22, 2022 | 6:30 a.m. EST
 Link: Northeast’s century-old rail bridges, tunnels land $9 billion overhaul
Stephan:   Under the dark circus of the Republican cultural war which dominates the news, the Biden administration is getting some serious and desperately needed work done. This report is an example of what I mean.
The Reconstruction-era Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel system, the biggest chokepoint between Washington and New Jersey, will be replaced by single-track twin tunnels. Credit: Bill O’Leary / The Washington Post.

More than a dozen century-old bridges and tunnels, the creaky backbone of the nation’s most important railroad corridor, are set to receive nearly $9 billion in new infrastructure grants, U.S. Department of Transportation officials said this week, marking the biggest step yet to begin overhauling the busy-but-antiquated line running from Washington to Boston.

The projects include the Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel, which opened in 1873, when Ulysses S. Grant was president. The 1.4-mile tunnel is now beset with crumbling brick and sinking floor slabs, leaving Amtrak trains creeping beneath West Baltimore at 30 mph on their way up and down the East Coast.

The list of “major backlog” projects federal officials say they are finally preparing to fund reads like a history of American infrastructure greatness frozen in amber, among them Connecticut’s Walk Bridge over the Norwalk River (Grover Cleveland), […]

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1 Comment

  1. Rev. Dean on Sunday, December 25, 2022 at 9:06 pm

    I just hope that $8,000,000 is enough to solve at least most of our problems.
    P.S. I do not know how much longer I can use my Windows 7 system. If I have to buy a new computer, I will need to get a reverse mortgage to do it.