巴尔的摩-迎接他的是火车欢快的喇叭声，总统乔·拜登周一站在一个破旧的铁路隧道前，他估计自己已经走过1000次了——几十年来一直担心它可能会倒塌。
“多年来，人们一直在谈论修复这条隧道，”拜登在巴尔的摩对人群说。“早在80年代初，我实际上和一些建筑工人一起走进了隧道。...这是一条有150年历史的隧道。你想知道它到底是怎么还站着的。”
"不过，有了两党基础设施法，我们终于完成了这项工作."
总统来到熟悉的领域，推广他的2021年基础设施法，这是两党的胜利，刚刚增加了重大项目的支出。
拜登说，更换巴尔的摩和波托马克隧道可以将巴尔的摩到华盛顿目前60分钟的通勤时间削减一半，让每天的乘客有更多时间与家人和朋友在一起。
作为参议员，总统定期通过隧道回到位于美国国家铁路客运公司的特拉华老家。他说，他“15%的时间和工程师们在一起”，并且有一把钥匙可以进入火车的后部。
他说，新隧道将带来20，000个建筑工作岗位，并减少汽车交通和污染，“这些工作是我过去晚上坐火车回家时会想到的。”
该隧道于1873年尤利西斯·s·格兰特任总统时首次开通，首次通过铁路将费城和华盛顿连接起来。但随着时间的推移，它越来越成为一个瓶颈，而不是生命线。这里只有一条地铁，火车需要减速到30英里/小时(48公里/小时)才能通过南端的急转弯。
大约十年后完工，新隧道预计将有两个管道，总共有四条轨道，允许火车以超过100英里/小时的速度行驶。它将以弗雷德里克·道格拉斯的名字命名，他从马里兰州的奴隶制中逃脱出来，成为一名杰出的废奴主义者。包括相关桥梁和设备现代化在内的整个项目可能耗资60亿美元。
根据白宫的说法，拜登还宣布了旨在顺利完成隧道并确保工会工人获得良好工资的劳动协议。马里兰州也同意投入4.5亿美元用于建设。
联邦基础设施立法还没有拨款。然而，拜登签署的法律包括240亿美元用于东北走廊沿线的铁路改善，以及高达47亿美元的巴尔的摩隧道，涵盖其大部分成本。
尽管多名马里兰州官员出席了拜登的演讲，但当地仍有一些人反对新隧道。反对隧道的居民团体(RATT)反对该项目，因为他们担心隧道的建设、货运使用以及过往列车产生的噪音和振动会对附近地区造成损害。
但是对于那些在火车上认识总统的人来说，这个项目反映了一种经过多年通勤挑战来之不易的方法。
69岁的格雷格·韦弗在美国国家铁路客运公司42年的指挥生涯中结识了拜登。当他在南行的火车上上早班时，有时他们不得不在巴尔的摩宾州车站等待，因为前方隧道有麻烦。
“看起来怎么样?”拜登在思考他在国会山的日程时会这样问。
“隧道真的会让整个事情变得复杂，”2013年退休的韦弗说。“这是一个瓶颈。”
至于拜登，“他骑了这么多，他可能经历了所有要经历的事情，”韦弗说。
巴尔的摩是拜登本周致力于基础设施建设的三次访问中的第一次。周二，他将前往纽约，讨论另一条新铁路隧道的计划，这条隧道位于哈德逊河下方。
周五，拜登将前往费城，民主党全国委员会也在那里举行冬季会议，以最终确定该党的初选日程。副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯将与他一起，白宫表示，他的讲话将侧重于更换铅管，这是基础设施立法的另一个关键部分。
在新冠肺炎疫情之前，每个工作日大约有200，000人通过巴尔的摩的隧道。但是因为只有两条轨道，任何维护或问题都可能严重阻碍旅行。
除了修建一条新隧道，该项目还将修复现有的版本。它被2012年桑迪飓风期间涌入的腐蚀性盐水损坏。
'Amtrak Joe' Biden hails plans for big East Coast tunnel fix
BALTIMORE -- Greeted by the cheerful blare of a train horn, President Joe Biden stood Monday before a decrepit rail tunnel that he estimated he's been through 1,000 times — fearing for decades it might collapse.
“For years, people talked about fixing this tunnel,” Biden told a crowd in Baltimore. “Back in the early '80's, I actually walked into the tunnel with some of the construction workers. ... This is a 150-year-old tunnel. You wonder how in the hell it's still standing."
“With the bipartisan infrastructure law, though, we're finally getting it done.”
The president came to familiar terrain to promote his 2021 infrastructure law, a bipartisan win that is just now ramping up the spending on major projects.
Biden said replacing the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel could slash what's now a 60-minute Baltimore-to-Washington commute in half, giving daily riders extra time with family and friends.
As a senator, the president regularly journeyed home to Delaware on Amtrak through the tunnel. He rode “15% of the time with engineers," he said, and had a key to get into the back of the trains.
The new tunnel will lead to 20,000 construction jobs and cut down on auto traffic and pollution, he said, “jobs for folks I used to think about as I took the train home at night.”
The tunnel, first opened in 1873 when Ulysses S. Grant was president, connected Philadelphia and Washington by rail for the first time. But over time, it became more of a chokepoint than a lifeline. There's only one tube, and trains need to slow to just 30 mph (48 kilometers per hour) to navigate a tight turn on the southern end.
Once completed roughly a decade from now, the new tunnel is expected to have two tubes, with up to four tracks total, and allow trains to travel more than 100 mph. It will be named for Frederick Douglass, who escaped from slavery in Maryland and became a prominent abolitionist. The total project, which includes related bridges and equipment modernization, could cost $6 billion.
Biden also announced labor agreements intended to smooth the tunnel's completion and ensure good wages for union workers, according to the White House. Maryland has also agreed to commit $450 million for construction.
No money has yet been awarded from the federal infrastructure legislation. However, the law signed by Biden includes $24 billion for rail improvements along the Northeast Corridor, and up to $4.7 billion could be provided for the Baltimore tunnel, covering the majority of its cost.
Even as multiple Maryland officials attended Biden's speech, there is some local opposition to the new tunnel. The group Residents Against the Tunnels (RATT) opposes the project out of concern that the construction, use of the tunnel for freight and noise and vibration from passing trains would be detrimental to the neighborhood located above.
But for those who know the president from his time on the train, the project reflects an approach hard earned over years of commuting challenges.
Gregg Weaver, 69, got to know Biden while working as a conductor during a 42-year career with Amtrak. When he was working the morning shift on a southbound train, sometimes they would have to hold at Baltimore Penn Station because of trouble ahead at the tunnel.
“How’s it look?” Biden would ask as he pondered his schedule on Capitol Hill.
“The tunnel can really complicate the whole thing,” said Weaver, who retired in 2013. “It’s a bottleneck.”
As for Biden, “he rode so much, he probably experienced everything there is to experience," Weaver said.
Baltimore is the first of three trips this week that Biden has dedicated to infrastructure. On Tuesday, he will travel to New York to talk about plans for another new rail tunnel, this one under the Hudson River.
On Friday, Biden is headed to Philadelphia, where the Democratic National Committee is also holding its winter meeting to finalize the party's primary schedule. He will be joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, and the White House says his remarks will focus on replacing lead pipes, another key part of the infrastructure legislation.
Roughly 200,000 people rode through the Baltimore tunnel every workday before the COVID-19 pandemic. But because there are only two tracks, any maintenance or problem threatened to severely constrict travel.
Besides building a new tunnel, the project would rehabilitate the existing version. It was damaged by corrosive salt water that flooded in during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
