Bush River and Gunpowder River Bridge Replacements, Amtrak Northeast Corridor, Maryland

Amtrak’s Bush River and Gunpowder River bridge replacements are moving from planning into preliminary engineering. Amtrak picked HNTB in mid-October 2026 to provide architecture and engineering services for both crossings, a pair of 113-year-old bridges on the Northeast Corridor in Harford and Baltimore counties between Baltimore and Wilmington, Del.

Both bridges carry more than 100 Amtrak, MARC and Norfolk Southern trains a day. Both cap speeds at about 125 mph. And the Bush River span is a movable bridge that still takes a 20-person crew to crank it open for boats on summer weekends. It has failed to close before, stranding trains.

Project Scope

The Gunpowder River Bridge sits between Chase and Joppatowne. The Bush River Bridge, just to the north, runs between Edgewood and Perryman. Both will be fully replaced.

The headline design change is at Bush River: Amtrak now plans a fixed, high-clearance bridge instead of another movable span, which eliminates the opening crew and the failure risk that comes with any moving rail bridge. The Gunpowder replacement is planned with better corrosion resistance. The programs also rebuild track alignment, signals and electric traction across about 10 miles of corridor at Gunpowder and about 6 miles at Bush, according to Amtrak’s fact sheets.

Target speeds go up to 145 mph at Gunpowder and 160 mph at Bush.

Preliminary engineering and NEPA review are funded mainly by a Federal Railroad Administration grant, with contributions from Amtrak and the Maryland Transit Administration, and are due to wrap up in 2029. Final design and construction money hasn’t been identified. Amtrak hasn’t published a construction cost.

Why It Matters

These are two of the oldest working bridges on the busiest rail line in the country, and they sit in the same stretch of track. Doing them as a pair lets Amtrak rebuild alignment and power across the whole segment instead of patching two bottlenecks on different timelines.

Be realistic about the schedule, though. Preliminary engineering through 2029 means construction contracts are years out and depend on federal funding that isn’t in hand. Amtrak’s other Northeast Corridor bridge jobs, from Connecticut River to Dock Bridge, show the agency can deliver once money lands. Until it does, this is a design contract, not a build.

For HNTB, it’s another anchor on the corridor. For contractors, the fixed Bush River span over navigable water will be the job to watch when it eventually bids.

Project Team & Details