Looks like if they put in the connection from the Empire tunnel to the ladder track that would help out for the East river tunnel project.
Pretty much agree with that as a matter of routine operation. However, I think building the capability into the plant to be able to do it if they have to is wise, just for the sake of flexibility. If some platform tracks/leads go OOS temporarily, which has been known to happen at Penn, having that accesd might well mean the difference between cancelling a train or being able to run it.Ladder track is a doube-edged sword. While it looks like they would able to run an Empire and Gateway tunnel trains as far north as Track 18, doing so would block almost the entire station in and out from the west.
Looks to me that the 2 tracks from the new bridge will expand into 3 then just connect into the existing tracks at Secaucus. On the west side they will need to reconfigure SWIFT interlocking where the Kearney connection comes off as everything is now shifted north..3rd span of the portal north bridge has arrived and should be in place shortly.
Is there any detail available on the related work they will need to do on the Sec station side and sawtooth bridge side of the bridge in order to get it into service prior to any of the other gateway components breaking ground? I would expect that they have to do some major track realignments at Secaucus station in particular in order to link the new tracks and also to avoid having a measurable slow down zone for Amtrak trains passing through Sec station