A joint venture of Tutor Perini and its heavy civil engineering subsidiary, Frontier-Kemper Constructors, has won a $1.18bn contract to dig the Manhattan Tunnel, a project that prepares the ground on the island of Manhattan for the bigger Hudson Tunnel Project (HTP), which will see a new, twin-tube rail tunnel built under the Hudson River from Secaucus Junction in New Jersey to Penn Station in Manhattan.
To prepare for this, Tutor Perini and Frontier-Kemper will design and build 700 feet of twin, 30-foot-diameter tunnels from the Manhattan Bulkhead on the Hudson shore to the cut-and-cover Hudson Yards Concrete Casing east of 12th Avenue.
Manhattan is heavily built up underground, so it will be a temporary tunnel shell that clears the way for tunnel boring machines to excavate the permanent tunnel later.
The JV will have to navigate major sewer lines and live utilities, and deal with anticipated obstructions ranging from archeological finds to concrete slabs and debris. They will also clear pile foundations remaining from the West Side Highway that collapsed in 1973.
The contractors proposed using a protective digging shield that would keep most of the work underground.
Work is expected to start in the spring, with substantial completion anticipated in 2029.
Tricky underground
“The Manhattan Tunnel Project is one of the most technically complex pieces of the HTP,” said Tom Prendergast, chief executive of the Gateway Development Commission, the public authority developing the HTP.
“Building anything underground in Manhattan requires careful planning and expert execution, as I know from overseeing multiple subway expansion projects.”
Prendergast was appointed chief executive in January. He joined from Aecom, and was formerly chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He said he was proud to start his tenure by awarding the contract to “a highly qualified team that I am confident will successfully deliver this vital aspect of the HTP”.
‘Most urgent project in the country’
By the anticipated completion in 2038, the $16bn HTP will have provided four modern rail tubes under the Hudson instead of the vulnerable two today.
As well as the new Hudson River twin-tube tunnel, the HTP also includes rehabilitating the 115-year-old, twin-tube North River Tunnel under the Hudson from New Jersey to Penn Station a little to the north.
Currently the only rail tunnel under the Hudson, it carries 24 trains an hour.
But it was badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and requires heavy maintenance, making it a choke point on the vital north east rail corridor running from Washington, DC north to Boston.
Taking in the east coast cities of Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, New Haven, and Boston, the corridor contributes 20% of United States’ GDP.
That’s why the Gateway Development Commission calls HTP “the most urgent infrastructure programme in America”
The new Hudson River twin-tube tunnel is expected to open in 2035.
In August last year, a joint venture of Lane Construction, Schiavone and Dragados won a $466m contract to build the mile-long section on the New Jersey shore (see Further Reading).
The rehabilitated North River Tunnel is expected to open after a three-year programme of works in 2038.
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Further Reading:
