Frustrations are boiling in West Baltimore as preliminary work on a new train tunnel gets underway.
“We are fearful of what’s going to happen,” said Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, President of the Matthew Henson Neighborhood Association.
Amtrak is preparing to build a new 10-mile tunnel beneath the city’s west side.
Construction isn’t expected to begin until next year.
However, three times in the past month, crews have shutdown parking and rolled in drilling equipment to perform preliminary work and it’s caught residents by surprise.
“We’ve had three incidents here and we haven’t been told anything about it,” complained Cheatham.
At a community meeting Wednesday night, Amtrak officials apologized to residents for the breakdown in communication.
“We recognized we were behind the crews doing this work, in terms of notification. As soon as we realized that, we put things into place so we could be ahead of them,” said Odessa Phillips, an Amtrak official.
Community leaders insist they’re prepared to fight the project if communication doesn’t improve.
“We want to be accommodating as we can but folks have to understand, we live here,” insisted Cheatham.
Originally Published: July 17, 2024 at 12:42 p.m.