Cuomo urges federal help on Hudson tunnel repairs

Written by Kyra Senese, Managing Editor, Railway Track & Structures
image description

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo toured a North River tunnel on Oct. 17, 2018. Photo: Flickr/Gov. Andrew Cuomo

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo toured one of the two North (Hudson) River rail tunnels on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor linking New Jersey and New York to view corrosion and damage, and called on President Trump to support funding for repairs.

The governor said he toured the tunnel around 11 p.m. because closing it down during overnight hours to accommodate a tour would be the least disruptive to the NJ Transit and Amtrak trains that use them.

“This project is just to maintain functionality,” Cuomo said. “[Repairing] the tunnel doesn’t improve service dramatically. This is just basic functionality of the infrastructure. And it is a major concern and it is a growing concern.”

Cuomo’s plea comes as the $30 billion Gateway Project to build two new North River tunnels to supplement the existing ones and, with an expansion to Penn Station  New York, effectively double capacity,  received just $541 million in federal money in the current fiscal spending bill signed by President Trump earlier this year. That was down from an agreed-on $900 million after Trump tried unsuccessfully to persuade Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, to support funding for the proposed Mexican border wall in exchange for his backing Gateway.

During Superstorm Sandy in October 2012, both North River tunnels were flooded with seawater, which officials said damaged their concrete lining, corroded electrical cabling and caused standing water damage. The damage caused by Sandy was  made worse by the tunnels’ age and the intensity of their current use, officials said.

The governor said while there has not been a specific plan outlined with the federal government to repair the tunnels, the structures are more 100 years old.* “People think that a tunnel can fill with salt water and then you pump out the salt water and everything’s fine—that’s not actually the case,” Cuomo said. “Much of the residue remains and continues to do damage.”

*Editor’s Note: The press release issued by Governor Cuomo’s office contained the following statement: “They (the tunnels) were built in cast iron tubes that are laid on the river bed. Throughout time they sink into the silt of the riverbed, making water intrusion an ongoing issue.” The release also said that Cuomo toured “the Gateway Tunnel.” Whoever wrote the release has no idea what they’re talking about. Construction has yet to begin on the Gateway Tunnels. The existing tubes that Cuomo actually toured were constructed of cast iron rings bolted together, and lined with concrete, but they were not “laid on the riverbed.” Nor are they sinking into the silt. Like all other underwater tunnels, they were built within the riverbed, in this case about 20 feet down, within the silt. The Hudson River’s silt does shift slightly with the tides. As such, the tubes were designed to flex up and down about six inches, as the Pennsylvania Railroad engineers who designed and built them more than 100 years ago discovered that there was no practical way to anchor them to the bedrock that is far below the silt river bed. Leaking water has mostly to do with age.

A bit of history: The existing North (Hudson) River tunnels opened in 1910 as part of the Pennsylvania
Railroad’s New York Improvements Project, at the time the largest railroad civil engineering project of its type. The other main pieces were Pennsylvania Station (the original above-ground station demolished in 1966 and replaced with Madison Square Garden, leaving the existing Penn Station, which is little more than a hole in the ground), the four tunnels under the East River used by the PRR and Long Island Rail Road, and Sunnyside Yard in Queens. Today, this complex is the busiest part of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, used by roughly 1,000 Amtrak, NJ Transit and LIRR trains per day. Gateway is a multi-billion-dollar project to construct two new Hudson River tunnels to supplement, not replace, the original ones, transform the historic Farley Post Office Building across the street from Penn Station on Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street into a new station to supplement the existing one. Trump has refused to fully fund this project, which President Obama verbally committed to during his Administration.

One of the best narratives on the PRR’s New York Improvements Project is Jill Jones’ Conquering Gotham, published in 2008 by Penguin Random House.

Finally, the North River tunnels’ poor condition has been well-known for many years. Cuomo’s tour—accompanied by a press release filled with egregious errors—was mostly a political stunt, though probably a necessary one, given the Trump Administration’s blatant dismissal of real and pressing infrastructure needs. — William C. Vantuono

Tags: , , ,