Arup has been placed in the lead for MTA/NJ Transit and Amtrak’s planned redevelopment and expansion of Penn Station in New York City. The tender was announced recently by the rail service and is part of a larger Gateway Program aimed at improving a critical infrastructure clog situated in a ten-mile stretch along Amtrak’s overworked Northeast Corridor.

The multinational engineering concern is now tasked with designing the first new tracks, platforms, and concourses at the 117-year-old station in over a century. The project will relieve an ugly bottleneck at the western end of Penn Station, doubling its capacity in a process that also generates a much-improved customer experience for commuters to the country’s busiest transportation hub.

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said: “This announcement represents significant progress in the much-needed expansion of Penn Station and the modernization of our nation’s most important transportation network,” referring to the project’s place among the broader agenda of infrastructure improvements pursued by congressional Democrats and the Biden Administration.

In the calendar year alone, the Federal government has allocated some $110 billion to such projects in wake of the $1 trillion bill that was signed into law before Thanksgiving. The expansion design will cost a total of $73 million and take approximately two years to complete.

“The expansion of Penn Station is critical to ensuring the preeminence of the New York region as the center of global commerce,” NJ TRANSIT President & CEO Kevin S. Corbett said in a statement. “Ridership has tripled from 200,000 in 1968 to 600,000 today. The existing station, even when fully renovated, will still be woefully inadequate to meet current demand much less the anticipated growth for the coming decades. This design work is the foundation upon which this vital expansion project will be built, and sets the stage to realizing the full benefits the Gateway Program will deliver to this region.”

Arup will be joined by Kohn Pedersen Fox and Grimshaw for the concept design portion of the project’s still under-review vetting process. Next steps include a federally-mandated environmental review, after which the public comments segment of the project will ensue. The team will look to expand on its impressive past successes, which to date include the Fulton Center, Hudson Yards, and Second Avenue Subway developments in New York; Kings Cross and the HS2 Euston Station in London; and the new Union Square Development at Kowloon Station in Hong Kong.