The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has awarded a $19.7 million design contract for work intended to protect a vulnerable stretch of Metro-North's Hudson Line from flooding, runoff and mudslides. The planned improvements would cover rail infrastructure between Spuyten Duyvil and Hastings-on-Hudson, including a segment used by 25,000 Metro-North riders on a typical weekday.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the award during Climate Week. It advances a $270 million project within a broader $800 million Hudson Line resilience effort in the MTA's 2025-2029 capital plan. The contract pays for design, not completed construction; the MTA expects construction to begin in 2029.
The project reaches beyond New York City into the lower Hudson Valley. The line runs along the Hudson River, with steep slopes to the east. Heavy rain can send water and debris toward the tracks, while high tides and coastal flooding threaten the shoreline side. The MTA said recent floods and mudslides have disrupted service on the corridor, which also carries Amtrak and freight trains.
Drainage, slopes and shoreline in the design
The design work will address retaining walls and slopes, expand culverts and drainage along the tracks, rehabilitate shoreline structures and consider flood protection for tracks where feasible. Those are different defenses for different sources of water: runoff from the slopes, river-side flooding and drainage failures along the right of way.
Engineering firms STV and WSP will carry out the design as a joint venture. The project will also produce a resilience blueprint to guide future investments elsewhere on the Hudson Line, according to the governor's office. The MTA tied the work to vulnerabilities identified in its 2024 Climate Resilience Roadmap and repair needs in its 2025-2044 Twenty-Year Needs Assessment.
The announcement describes the broader effort as focused on a 20-mile stretch from Riverdale to Croton-Harmon, while the newly awarded design contract centers on the more specific Spuyten Duyvil-to-Hastings-on-Hudson segment. The $270 million project figure is the planned project scope; $19.7 million is the design award. Neither figure means the protective construction has already been finished.
MTA Construction & Development President Jamie Torres Springer said the contract is a step toward safeguarding service rather than an end to the line's weather risks. Metro-North President Justin Vonashek said the railroad is taking a series of steps to protect the corridor over time.
Earlier work and another project in design
The Hudson Line has already received more than $400 million in resilience work since Superstorm Sandy, the MTA said. That work improved power, communications and signal systems along a 30-mile section from the Bronx to Croton-Harmon. The new project focuses more directly on the physical infrastructure that manages water and stabilizes the rail corridor.
A separate $20 million project between Glenwood and Greystone stations is also in design. Funded in the state's 2025 budget, it is intended to stabilize steep slopes and improve stormwater infrastructure. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who helped secure that funding, said the work responds to concerns from communities that depend on the line.
Hastings-on-Hudson Mayor Thomas Drake said the design award moves forward protections for riders and communities exposed to runoff and tidal flooding. The MTA has not announced a completion date for the new construction; for now, the engineering work and the expected 2029 construction start are the next stated milestones.
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