Metro-North orders $50 million Port Jervis repairs

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Monday that massive repairs on Metro-North Railroad’s hurricane-damaged Port Jervis Line, at an estimated cost of $50 million, will allow train service to resume by the end of the year. The line is part of Metro-North’s West of Hudson services, which operate to and from Hoboken, N.J.

“Within two days of the August 28 storm, Metro-North had an alternate bus service in place,” said the railroad. “On Sept. 19, train service was restored between Port Jervis and Harriman [N.Y.], with bus service provided from Harriman to Ramsey/Route 17 [N.J.]. This temporary service plan will remain ineffect during the track reconstruction. In all, busing is expected to cost about $10 million over two years.” Funding sources include "maximum reimbursement from FEMA and insurance."

MTA said that after the track is reopened in December, occasional busing will continue in some off-peak periods to allow completion of floodmitigation measures and river bank stabilization to protect the railroad’s investment in the line. The full pre-storm train schedule will be restored when the second track between Harriman and Suffern is finished in fall 2012.

An engineering assessment by AECOM has determined that it will take about 150,000 tons of stone—roughly 5,000 tractor-trailer-sized dump-truckloads—to stabilize the track bed and shore up the river bank. Metro-North directed AECOM to create a phased rebuilding plan.

Engineers estimate that 90% of the repair work will be replacement of stone washed away by flooding in a 14-mile stretch between Suffern and Harriman (such as pictured in the photo below).

In all, there are 50 washouts that add up to 2 miles of right-of-way that nolonger exists. Fast-moving water overtopped the tracks and scoured awayballast, sub-base and earth to depths of 7 feet. Large sections of trackhang in mid-air; some track was grossly twisted out of alignment by the force of the water.