President Biden was set to visit Baltimore on Monday to kick off a project to replace the 150-year-old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel.
The replacement tunnel is the latest project to be hailed by the Administration that’s backed by the bipartisan Infrastructure Law that Biden signed in November 2021, which includes $66 billion in funding for passenger rail.
The 1.4-mile stretch of tunnel that’s been causing rail bottlenecks between Washington DC and New Jersey was completed when Ulysses S. Grant was President.
The new tunnel will be named after Maryland abolitionist Frederick Douglass. It’s expected to create some 20,000 direct construction jobs, according to the White House. The Frederick Douglass Tunnel could cost about $6 billion, of which the infrastructure law will cover up to $4.7 billion.
Biden will be joined at the tunnel project kick-off by Maryland Sens. Ben Cardin (D) and Chris Van Hollen (D), as well as Gov. Wes Moore (D) and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
On Tuesday, Biden will be in New York City to discuss another tunnel project: the Gateway Hudson Tunnel, which transports some 200,000 Amtrak and New Jersey Transit passengers through the Hudson River every weekday.
