MTA Awards $19.7 Million Design Contract for Hudson Line Hardening Project

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 28, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced that it had awarded a design contract worth $19.7 million to a joint venture of STV and WSP for a flood-hardening project on sections of the Metro-North Railroad Hudson Line. The design contract corresponds to a resilience upgrade project with a total investment of approximately $270 million, focused on sections of the lower Hudson Line vulnerable to stormwater runoff, tidal flooding, and other extreme weather impacts.

The design work will center on drainage, water flow management, slope and roadbed stabilization, and rehabilitation of existing aging assets. The project plans to harden retaining walls and slopes along the route, expand culverts and track and slope drainage facilities, repair shoreline structures adjacent to the Hudson River, and add flood protection facilities in sections of the line where conditions permit. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2029.

The Hudson Line is approximately 74 miles long, bordered by the Hudson River to the west and mostly steep slopes to the east, and is exposed to storm surge, heavy rainfall, surface runoff, and landslide risks along its route. The MTA disclosed in its 2025–2029 capital plan that more than half of the line is currently exposed to coastal flood risk, and that some culverts, bridges, retaining walls, and shoreline protection structures along the line have been in service for more than 100 years. During Tropical Storm Ida in 2021, a 110-year-old culvert north of Dobbs Ferry was washed out by flooding, and a retaining wall collapse also occurred near Yonkers.

This $270 million project is only part of the overall resilience investment in the Hudson Line. The MTA's 2025–2029 capital plan has allocated approximately $800 million for climate resilience upgrades on the Hudson Line, with subsequent work to continue on shoreline hardening, erosion control, slope stabilization, and drainage capacity improvements. The line serves approximately 10 million passengers annually and also carries Amtrak passenger and CSX freight trains, so the related upgrades will cover both commuter rail and mainline rail operating environments.

The Hudson Line has previously undergone continuous localized disaster prevention upgrades. In earlier capital programs, the MTA arranged measures for the line including raising substation facilities, flood barriers, and protection of signal and communication equipment. This design contract further expands the flood protection scope to civil engineering systems such as roadbed, culverts, shoreline, and slopes, and will form the engineering design basis for subsequent system-wide resilience investment.