Maryland officials are scrambling to find another strategy to finance the $425 million expansion of an aging Baltimore freight rail tunnel, following CSX Transportation’s withdrawal from the project earlier this month.
Increasing the clearance inside the 120-year old, 1.4-mile Howard Street Tunnel to accommodate double-stacked container loads was considered essential to helping the Port of Baltimore compete with other East Coast ports for a share of post-Panama Canal expansion shipping traffic. Volume has already been on the rise, with 908,000 20-ft-equivalent container units passing through Baltimore during the 12-month period that ending June 30. A nearby 356-acre waterfront site, purchased by the state in May, was being eyed for the first major expansion of the port since the 1980s.