Dive Brief:
- Amtrak’s $2.7 billion Susquehanna River Rail Bridge project kicked off preconstruction work on July 19, per an Amtrak news release, with the goal of improving connectivity on the Northeast Corridor, the country’s busiest rail passage.
- The existing 118-year-old bridge is the longest moveable span on the Northeast Corridor and serves approximately 110 Amtrak, MARC commuter rail and freight trains each day. Currently, trains must slow to 90 mph when crossing the bridge, creating capacity and reliability constraints.
- The Federal Rail Administration, Maryland DOT/Maryland Transit Authority and Amtrak are partners on the project. A joint venture of Broomfield, Colorado-based Flatiron and St. Joseph, Missouri-headquartered Herzog is the construction manager at risk.
Dive Insight:
The Susquehanna River Rail Bridge project will help improve reliability and safety, increase trains speeds to a higher limit of 160 mph and eliminate conflicts with maritime traffic, per the release. Work entails building two new two-track bridges in the towns of Havre de Grace and Perryville in Maryland and modernizing five miles of track, including electrical systems and signals.
Amtrak also awarded two other contracts to advance the project. Dallas-based AECOM’s team will support completion of the final design and manage the bridge construction phase. Pittsburgh-based Fay Construction was selected to demolish and remove 10 piers that remain from an 1866 railroad bridge that was located just east of the existing bridge.
The first pre-construction work includes utility upgrades in Perryville and removal of the remnant bridge piers from the Susquehanna River. That work is set to be finished by the end of 2024, according to the release, and sets the stage for the start of bridge construction later next year.
The project is funded in part by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as well as Amtrak and the State of Maryland. In November 2023, the FRA announced $2.08 billion in grant funding to support final design and construction for the Susquehanna bridge, part of $16.4 billion in federal investment from the IIJA for 25 Northeast Corridor projects.
“Amtrak is excited to kick off early work on this important bridge upgrade, one of several major Amtrak infrastructure megaprojects now underway or set to begin by the end of 2024,” said Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner in the release. “Amtrak is advancing a new era of passenger rail with state-of-the-art bridges, tunnels and trains on the way.”
