West Baltimore residents raise concerns about impact of proposed rail tunnel

Rolando Maxwell talking with Amtrak representatives at Mary Ann Winterling Elementary School. Photo by Elijah Pittman

Amtrak and MARC officials told a community forum Wednesday that a proposed new tunnel planned to run under at least 10 majority-Black neighborhoods in West Baltimore will be deep enough to minimize harm to area homes.

Sandtown-Winchester resident Gary English has his doubts.

“They said because it’s going to be approximately 96 feet under my house … it will not disturb my house,” he said during the presentation. “My thing is, suppose it does disturb my house?”

His reaction was typical of local residents who turned out for the informational event on the proposed 1.4-mile Frederick Douglass tunnel, part of a larger renovation of a 10-mile stretch of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.

The $6 billion project would replace the current unsafe and outdated 150-year-old tunnel with two side-by-side tunnels to carry Amtrak and MARC trains under the city. Wednesday night’s public information session at the Mary Ann Winterling Elementary School also unveiled designs for a new West Baltimore MARC Station, the last on the commuter rail’s Penn Line before the current tunnel.

Luigi Rosa, an Amtrak assistant vice president who is leading the project, said the types of tunnels planned will be so deep that they will not disturb homes or residents.

“The tunnel is underneath the homes – let’s say Reservoir Hill – the tunnel is pretty deep, more than 100 feet below,” Rosa said. “Nothing is going to happen to the homes, and even though those are old homes they’re not going to feel anything because it’s very deep.”

He said that technology planned for the project is very advanced and is being used all over the world, including New York City, Los Angeles, Rome and a new European project connecting Italy and Austria.

“The tunneling boring machine is a very advanced technology that you can dig a tunnel in every rock, every soil very safely. We are digging tunnels all around the world,” Rosa said. “I’m from Rome and they’re digging a tunnel under the Coliseum.”

One resident, Wendy Kelly, who lives next to the current MARC rail line, was not directly opposed to the project. But she does want security for her home, which would be the last home on the row and exposed to the new MARC station if the two homes next to hers are demolished as planned.

“I’m going to have empty property around it, it is a thoroughfare for people to come through … and I want it secure. Floodlights, security camera, voice control so I can talk to them … and I want a chain-link fence,” Kelly said.

She said Amtrak officials gave her all the information she wanted and told her that she would not have to move while the project was underway.

“It is something that you have to come to grips with, they have the power, and it’s going to happen. And all I want, or anybody in that area should, want is to make sure their property is protected,” she said.

Ijeoma Nwatu is the communications director for the Community Law Center, an organization that is working with affected neighborhoods to ensure that residents are protected during the tunnel construction. She said at Wednesday’s event that some progress has been made.

“From everything I heard tonight it does sound like some community input was taken into consideration, which we consider progress. But we do want to acknowledge though that it has been slow progress,” Nwatu said.

That progress includes public bathrooms in the MARC station, Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility compliance, and protective security measures, which both Amtrak and Nwatu said were requested by community members.

But Reservoir Hill resident Rolando Maxwell said the process has not been completely clear.

“They are trying to make it more transparent. One of the biggest problems that we have been having with Amtrak and everyone that works for them is that they haven’t been transparent,” Maxwell said. “No one can ever answer a question you ask them.”

Maxwell found it problematic that the proposed tunnel ran through Black neighborhoods when the current 150-year old tunnel doesn’t.

“What’s the shortest distance between two points? A straight line. So why are you doing this big curve? You made sure to do the big curve to avoid all the white communities,” Maxwell said.

Dean Del Peschio, the Maryland Transit Admnistration’s director of MARC service, said he thinks the community is excited by the improvements that will be made to the new MARC station. But he added that “when you do a project of this magnitude there’s always going to be people who have concerns or they may not like certain elements or things like that. In general the feedback has been very positive.”

– This story was updated at noon on Thursday, July 25, to clarify Dean Del Peschio’s comments and correct his last name.