BALTIMORE — His victory lap for getting the trillion-dollar infrastructure package through Congress cut straight through Baltimore where President Biden touted the construction of the $4 billion Frederick Douglass Tunnel, which will replace the Civil War era B&P tunnel.
“If this line shuts down, in just one day it would cost the country over $100 million,” said the president, “but this tunnel is a major checkpoint for over nine million Amtrak and Marc commuter rail passengers pass through it each and every year.”
A hundred trains pass through the existing decrepit tunnel each day, creating a bottleneck where both Amtrak and MARC trains often come to a crawl.
The new project will modernize and transform a four-mile section, including two new high-capacity tubes for electrified passenger trains, new roadway and railroad bridges allowing trains to travel three times faster.
“The construction on this tunnel alone will generate up to 30,000 jobs in the Baltimore regions, 20,000 construction jobs alone and we are talking about good strong union jobs,” said Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.
At a time when partisan politics dominates Capitol Hill, the president can point to Baltimore and the Frederick Douglass Tunnel as evidence of the progress than can be made when both sides work together.
“When we work together, there’s not a damn thing we can’t do,” said the president, “There’s nothing beyond our capacity. We can move. We can move this. We can move this nation forward.”
