PANYNJ approves two PATH substation replacements

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
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The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) Board of Commissioners approved two projects to replace aging substations in order to continue to upgrade the century-old line's infrastructure.

The projects, which total $134.5 million, will replace PATH Substation 7 in Jersey City and Substation 9 in Harrison, both critical to supplying power to the rail system.

PANYNJ says both substations sustained extensive damage during Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and are more nearly a half-century old. The new Substation 7 will be located on property acquired from Conrail in 2014 and Substation 9 on property acquired from PSE&G in 2016. The new substations will be designed to sit several feet above FEMA flood elevation maps, in accordance with the PANYNJ’s climate resilience design guidelines.

“PATH’s role in assisting New Jersey Transit customers during the summer track work outages at New York’s Penn Station has once again shown PATH is a critical lifeline for millions of New York and New Jersey commuters traveling between the two states,” said PANYNJ Chairman John Degnan. “Today’s investments in the rail line’s aging substation system will help power PATH’s trains for decades to come and help accommodate the ever growing numbers of customers traveling between New Jersey and New York.”

Federal Transit Administration grants are funding most of the cost of the projects. Work on both projects will begin later this year and is expected to be completed by the fall of 2021. The existing substations will remain in service until the new ones are built and activated.

“Since Superstorm Sandy hit the region in 2012, we’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars in repairing and upgrading PATH infrastructure to serve both current and future riders,” said PANYNJ Executive Director Pat Foye. “With annual ridership projected to surpass a record 80 million customers in 2017, today’s investment will continue our efforts to ensure PATH provides reliable and efficient rail service for decades to come.”

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