East River train tunnel reopens with measures to avoid Superstorm Sandy flood damage

Amtrak officials extolled the features of a newly rebuilt tunnel under the East River on Monday, including a smoother ride, repaired concrete walls and a string of blinking lights affixed to its wall to direct riders in an emergency.

But perhaps the most important feature of the tunnel — a major artery for Long Island Rail Road trains into Penn Station known as Line 2 — can't be seen from the train. It is the new drainage system sitting beneath the tracks.

"Really, what we're talking about is all about the management of water," said Laura Mason, executive vice president of capital delivery at Amtrak.

When Superstorm Sandy hit in 2012, millions of gallons of flood water entered the Line 1 and 2 tunnels, mostly from the Queens side. The drains clogged and the water stagnated, leaving behind a large amount of salt residue that corroded metal and concrete.

Liam McQuat, Amtrak’s vice president for engineering, said the new tunnel features a more accessible drainage ditch that is easier to clean, as well as new pumps that continuously drain the tunnels.

"If we ever get to a point where there's a hurricane similar to Sandy ... it's unlikely we could stop the water coming in," McQuat said. "So our priority is, how do we move the water through the tunnel system and back out of the tunnel system as efficiently as we possibly can. Becoming more resilient to a flood, rather than preventing a flood, is the way that we approach this."

Line 2 reopened this week after undergoing15 months of repairs for Sandy-related damage. Construction on Line 1 is expected to begin this fall. Two other tunnels between Queens and Penn were not significantly damaged by Sandy. 

At a media event Monday, reporters boarded a special train car equipped with external cameras and other monitoring equipment at Penn Station. It trundled to Queens along Line 1, then glided back under the river using Line 2. 

The new tunnel was a noticeably smoother ride, in part because its rails are directly secured to the concrete below, rather than sitting atop crushed stone ballast. Its green lights, meant for emergencies, are also an easy way for any rider to tell if they’re in the new tunnel rather than one of the three others used by Amtrak, the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit between Penn and Queens.

Mason said that besides the improved drainage system within the tunnels, Amtrak and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority are building flood walls to prevent water from entering the system.

While reconstructing Line 2, teams working from the tunnel’s ends in Manhattan and Queens removed 24,000 feet of degraded bench walls — enough concrete to cover a football field 12 feet high, according to Amtrak officials.

Now that Line 2 is complete, Amtrak will shut down Line 1 for 13 months of similar reconstruction starting this fall.

The repair process was marred by a dispute between Amtrak, which owns the tunnels, and the MTA, which as the LIRR’s parent agency is their heaviest user. The MTA asked Amtrak to conduct the tunnel repairs at night and during weekends to avoid service disruptions, but Amtrak said it needed to shut down the tunnels completely to do the job right.

The LIRR is running about 20% fewer trains through Penn Station during peak morning hours while construction is underway, with additional trains deployed to Grand Central Madison and Atlantic Terminal, according to LIRR President Rob Free. The MTA blamed the Line 2 tunnel shutdown for worsening delays at Penn caused by fires in the other tunnels earlier this year.

MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber acknowledged the dispute at Monday's event but also congratulated Amtrak for completing the tunnel.

Amtrak interim president William Herrmann, for his part, thanked the MTA for its patience.

"The railroad we inherited was built by the generation before us, and our responsibility is to leave it safer, stronger, and more reliable for the next generation," he said.

By Peter Gill

peter.gill@newsday.com