Two contractors win major contract on Baltimore’s $4.7bn Frederick Douglass tunnel
07 February 2024
A joint venture between Kiewit and J.F. Shea has won a deal to build a new railway tunnel in Baltimore, USA, as part of a project backed by up to $4.7 billion in federal funding.
The two companies will build the Frederick Douglass tunnel carrying electrified Amtrak and MARC trains in two parallel, single-track tunnel tubes.
The Frederick Douglass Tunnel. named in honour of the civil rights leader and abolitionist of the same name, will replace Amtrak’s existing B&P Tunnel. It opened 150 years ago during the Ulysses S. Grant Administration.
Each new tunnel, just south of Baltimore Penn Station, will be around two miles long and will support higher maximum speeds than the existing tunnel, where trains are limited to 30mph due to tight curves.
The overall Program is scheduled for completion in 2035 and will be delivered through three major construction contracts, which include:
- Replacing five roadway and rail bridges; building new rail infrastructure (interlockings, tracks, catenary/power, etc.); and constructing a new ADA-accessible West Baltimore MARC Station. This contract has already been awarded to a joint venture between Clark Construction/Stacy and Witbeck.
- Building both tubes of the Frederick Douglass Tunnel (awarded to Kiewit and J.F. Shea in joint venture). Tunnel construction will start in 2026. Construction of the new tunnel is being delivered through the Construction Manager At-Risk (CMAR) delivery method, which client Amtrak claimed would improve project delivery time and allows design, pre-construction and other work to proceed simultaneously.
- Fitting out the new tunnel with tracks, rail systems and ventilation facilities (due to be awarded in 2025/26).
Amtrak said it would also move to appoint a delivery partner to coordinate the successful execution of the project soon.
Meanwhile, the first set of early work activities that began in March 2023 have now been completed. They included replacing aging wooden ties with 13,500 new concrete ties, installing 28,000 feet (8,534m) of new rail and completing track drainage improvements.
“We are one step closer to unlocking the biggest passenger rail bottleneck on the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C. and New Jersey,” said Amtrak executive vice president, capital delivery Laura Mason. “This would not be possible without historic funding through the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act, as well as continued support from the Biden-Harris Administration, FRA and our funding partners at Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration (MDOT MTA).”
When the Frederick Douglass Tunnel opens, it will be the first new passenger rail tunnel built on the Northeast Corridor since 1986, and the first in Maryland since 1934.
