AMTRAK’S B&P TUNNEL PROJECT

 
 

“FRA [Federal Railroad Administration] has determined that the Selected Alternative would have disproportionately high and adverse effects to EJ [Environmental Justice] populations as a result of property acquisition and impacts to housing, land use/zoning, community facilities, visual quality, and noise.”

- 2017 B&P Tunnel Project Record of Decision

 
 

In October of 2022, the Edmondson Community Organization received word that Amtrak was issuing “B&P Tunnel S-106 Project Change #1”. In this innocuously-named document, Amtrak and their contractors declared that they’ll be taking another 23 properties from residents and owners in Midtown-Edmondson - this in addition to the 27 historic properties in the neighborhood already demolished per the original 2017 record of decision, 6 more partially demolished, and tens more buildings full of residents predicted to be significantly affected by noise and pollution over the next ten years of the project and beyond.

 
 

The stated purpose of this new expansionary land grab is to “facilitate the construction of utilities” and “provide construction laydown and storage areas”. In other words, to provide a construction staging area directly in the heart of the Midtown-Edmondson Neighborhood - with all its attendant truck noise, dust, pollution, rattling and smells.

It’s not clear why Amtrak needs more land, given that since that Record of Decision in 2017, the project has been scaled down by 50% in scope - from 4 tunnels to 2. So presumably they’re should be more room to locate staging within that 2017 planned right-of-way.

Here, one can see all the properties affected by the original 2017 approved Record of Decision:

 
 


And here are the new properties to be taken or affected:


Here’s what the original EIS planned for construction areas and truck routes. Midtown-Edmondson will be massively affected for the decade of construction.

Amtrak has proposed to mitigate the “adverse effects” only through the “documentation of the Midtown Edmondson row-houses and architectural salvage” - so they’re going to document what was there before they tear it down, and save as much as of the architectural elements as possible.

Presumably the owners of the properties will be paid something for their homes they’re being forced to move out of. But as for the remaining residents, the ones that will left to deal with the noise and pollution for the next ten years, the ECO has received no communication from Amtrak about what mitigation - financial or otherwise - they will be providing.

 
 

“For the remaining residents, the ECO has received no communication from Amtrak about what mitigation - financial or otherwise - they will be providing.”

 
 

The ECO has requested a number of financial compensation items for the community, including the funding of a new community center for the neighborhood, but Amtrak has been silent on any and all requests - despite the fact that the Project includes a funding commitment of $50 million to be spent on mitigation going “only to organization that are active within a 1/4 mile of the project route”.