Watch: Biden touts latest infrastructure project, replacing a 150-year-old train tunnel in Baltimore

U.S. President Joe Biden is in Baltimore on Monday to laud the latest project funded by his Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, highlighting the state’s plans to replace a 150-year-old tunnel that runs Amtrak trains between Washington, D.C., and New York City.

The current Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel opened during the Ulysses S. Grant administration and is used by daily commuters, with an estimated 9 million passengers traveling through the tunnel annually. The new tunnel will be named in honor of Marylander Frederick Douglass.

The White House estimates the project will create approximately 20,000 construction jobs. An agreement signed between Amtrak and the Baltimore-DC Building and Construction Trades Council stipulates that the tunnel should be built by union workers.

Fixing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure has been a major priority for the Biden administration. The legislation, signed into law in late 2021, allocated more than $1 trillion to update transportation, broadband and utilities across the country.

Biden will continue his infrastructure tour on Tuesday in New York, where he will trumpet the Hudson Tunnel project, also paid for by the new law. Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Philadelphia on Friday, where funding from the law is being used to remove lead pipes.