Tube No. 2 of the East River Tunnel — which carries Amtrak, LIRR and NJ Transit trains bound for Penn Station — will stay closed for another month, as work crews address newfound flaws in its concrete ceiling, Amtrak officials said Wednesday.
The tube, one of four that run through the tunnel, has been out of commission since May 2025, when work crews began gutting the structure, which had been damaged by saltwater during 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, to make way for new rail, wiring and bench walls.
The work was expected to wrap up by July 6 — an end date reiterated as recently as last month’s Amtrak board meting.
The federal railway — which owns Penn Station and the tunnels that lead to it — would then spend several months preparing to conduct similar work on Tube No. 1.
But Amtrak executive Laura Mason said Wednesday that work crews wrapping up one of the reconstruction’s final steps — hanging the high-voltage catenary wire that carries power to some trains from the ceiling — had discovered a slew of concrete defects in the 116-year-old tunnel as they worked.
“Unfortunately, during installation we hit a much higher than expected number of issues,” Mason said. “We had unexpected voids (in the concrete ceiling), and from those voids, leaking water coming into the tunnel.”
Evan Simko-Bednarski/New York Daily News
The East River Tunnel, Tube No. 2. (Evan Simko-Bednarski / New York Daily News)
In more than half of the locations where crews sought to attach insulators to the tunnel’s ceiling — structures from which they would then hang the catenary wire — the concrete was found to be porous and unsuitable.
“Out of 203 locations, about 102 hit voids — so a little more than 50%,” Mason explained.
She added that the tunnel was structurally sound, but the inconsistency of the concrete was making it difficult to install the overhead wire on schedule.
“The tunnel remains safe — we are not worried about the structural integrity,” she said. “But the tolerances of exactly where that wire needs to be relative to the running rails — the distance where the train will be — is really tight. We have to have these in exactly the right place in order to hang that wire.”
Youssef Dehne, Amtrak’s project manager for the tunnel rebuild, told reporters the plan is to inject additional high-strength concrete into the voids as reinforcement.
“That’s what’s taking (some time): Ensuring that every location is completed, it’s waterproofed, and it’s per the tolerance that’s needed for electrical clearance,” he said.
Mason said Tube No. 2 is now scheduled to be returned to service in August.
Once the tube reopens, Amtrak crews are expected to shut down Tube No. 1, demolition of which is slated to begin this fall. That job is expected to take until late 2027, after which all four tubes of the East River Tunnel are expected to be operational.