Path Tunnel F

Serving nearly 260,000 New Jersey and New York passengers per week, the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) system has provided a popular and safe underground public mass transit network for over 100 years.

The PATH Corporation, a subsidiary of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), owns and operates these trains 24 hours per day along 14 miles of track. To keep these transit lines safe and operational PANYNJ required improvements to the system’s F Tunnel aging infrastructure.

Conti overcame unique challenges to perform the complex renovations of the F Tunnel. Conti’s work included constructing new reinforced concrete walls and reinforcing existing ones, surgical demolitions and removal or existing utilities, construction of a new foundation, interior finish restoration, and installation of a stainless steel security partition.

The team retrofitted these new structural elements to pre-existing underground tunnel and platform structures that dated back to the early 1900s while maintaining weekday commuter rail operations through the tunnel. Conti staged work from a remote PATH facility where trains were provided by PATH to move all materials and equipment to and from the underground tunnel work site. Even though all work had to be completed during weekend track outages, Conti completed the project on time and budget, including the labor-intensive concrete foundation preparatory stage in which the team removed rock of 15,000 to 20,000 psi compressive strength under the low headroom space of the tunnel.

Conti’s construction efforts provided advanced security and infrastructure upgrades to this century old rail transit system.