advertisement

---

Amtrak is gearing up to launch a major Northeast Corridor maintenance-of-way program next month. Between June 14 and 17, the national intercity passenger railroad will cancel service between Boston and New Haven, Conn., to replace the Thames River Bridge and conduct a maintenance "blitz" along the remainder of the corridor.

Amtrak will replace the movable span of the 90-year-old Thames River Bridge, which carries Northeast Corridor trains between Groton and New London, Conn. The replacement marks the final stage of the $83 million project.

"The aged drawbridge will be replaced by a more efficient vertical lift bridge that rises between two towers," said Amtrak Chief Engineer Frank Vacca in a prepared statement. "Once this is complete, rail passengers will be able to depend on a reliably operating lift span for the better part of this century."

The bridge handles 36 passenger trains and two freight trains each weekday.

The railroad will take advantage of the service outage by conducting its first-ever maintenance blitz between New Haven and Boston. Amtrak plans to replace 3,600 ties, surface four interlockings and 11 miles of track, install ADA-compliant tactile edge surfaces on platforms at the Providence station, install ties at five interlockings and two wayside switches, and repair movable bridges over the Connecticut and Niantic rivers and fixed bridges in several other locations.

The outage will affect several of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor services, including Acela Express between New York and Boston, and Regional service between Boston, New Haven and New York.