Reflecting how aging infrastructure and a drive towards sustainability is propelling the tunnel construction market in North America to new heights, STV recently engaged in two of the tunneling and geotechnical engineering industry’s premier events: the 2024 George A. Fox Conference in New York, which had its biggest turnout ever, and the 2024 Geo-Congress in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada which also registered a record attendance.
STV was a proud participant and corporate sponsor of both conferences, where similar conversations and themes popped up around resilient and sustainable infrastructure in North America. Hosted by the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), this year’s Geo-Congress conference centered around the theme of “Bridging Government, Industry, and Academia for Resilient Mega-Communities.” Key sessions underscored the crucial importance of enhancing cities and their infrastructure to be resilient to seismic activity as well as catastrophic storms or flooding.
At George A. Fox—organized by the Underground Construction Association—more than 500 people attending this year’s conference in New York were greeted by the keynote address, “Building a New Era of Passenger Rail in America,” by Laura Mason, executive vice president, capital delivery for Amtrak. Several speakers and sessions also used the event to discuss how best to overcome challenges in underground construction, especially as it relates to weathering and fracturing, rock stress and groundwater effect.
A resilient city or a mega-community is also one whose transit network is resilient. In New York City, STV’s tunneling and geotechnical team is supporting major programs that are extending the lifespan of existing infrastructure to last for another 150 years. Our team includes experts in the rehabilitation of tunnels and transit infrastructure, which not only improves an existing tunnel or track, but it also saves crucial federal funding that can be used for other projects.
Two key infrastructure programs that are doing just that – and were highlighted at George A. Fox – are the Gateway Hudson Tunnel Project between New York and New Jersey, and the MTA New York City Transit Second Avenue Subway – Phase 2 project in New York.
STV is currently developing and advancing preliminary engineering plans as part of the Gateway Trans-Hudson Partnership joint venture for the Gateway Hudson Tunnel Project – cited by many organizations as the nation’s most urgent infrastructure project. This program will modernize the more than 109-year-old infrastructure used by 200,000 daily commuters (pre-COVID) between New York and New Jersey, as well as throughout the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston. Demonstrating its unparalleled significance to the country, last November, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy were on-site in New York to mark the beginning of construction for the program. Since then, Gateway has hit several additional milestones that are helping to make this critical regional project a reality.
Similarly, the long-planned Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 program has made some exciting progress over the past few months. STV, in joint venture, is providing planning, architectural, civil, structural, mechanical, plumbing and fire protection, traction power and communications systems design, as well as systems integration services for the project, which will extend New York City’s Q Line on Manhattan’s Upper East Side from 96th Street to 125th Street and Park Avenue in Harlem. Within that 1.6-mile alignment is some of the most challenging of geological conditions amidst a densely populated area, a portion of which traverses through a historical block. One section of the program includes rehabilitating an existing tunnel that was built in the 1970s, which will be repurposed into the Phase 2 extension and the new 116th Street Station.
Late last year, the federal government earmarked $3.4 billion in funding for the project, and earlier this year, Gov. Hochul announced the award of a $182 million utility relocation contract, officially kickstarting construction.
Another project that was spotlighted at George A. Fox was the construction of two shafts on the 10.5-mile City Tunnel No. 3 between Queens and Brooklyn. On behalf of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, STV, in joint venture, is providing construction management services for this water supply tunnel segment. As part of this program, a sophisticated control system will be integrated into New York City’s existing water delivery infrastructure.
In addition to these projects, STV’s growing tunneling and geotechnical team is supporting several other initiatives that stand to dramatically improve our underground rail infrastructure. These include Section 2 and 3 of the Purple (D) Line Extension design-build for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, rehabilitation and improvements to the NYCT 8th Avenue Subway Line and CSX Transportation’s Howard Street Tunnel Clearance Program between Philadelphia and Baltimore. And with increased federal funding for these projects coming from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as well as passenger rail ridership levels returning to pre-pandemic levels, we anticipate that the tunneling market will remain strong for the foreseeable future.
