Joint venture inherits active-rail construction, single-level concourse conversion and complex staging beneath Madison Square Garden in Manhattan
Halmar and Skanska have been selected by federal officials to lead reconstruction of Penn Station in New York City, placing the newly formed Penn Transformation Partners joint venture at the center of one of the country’s most complex active-rail infrastructure projects with a targeted late-2027 groundbreaking.
The selection by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation and Amtrak closes a months-long procurement and shifts the project into a preconstruction phase expected to include contract negotiations, permitting, operational studies and financial close before work begins.
Financial details of the arrangement with Penn Transformation Partners were not disclosed.
The team was selected over competing proposals led by Macquarie-backed Grand Penn Partners and Fengate-backed Penn Forward Now. The award follows a procurement process launched after federal DOT and Amtrak, owner of the rail hub, shifted delivery lead authority from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority to a public-private partnership, or P3, model.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy disclosed during May 19 Senate testimony that the Trump administration plans to commit $8 billion toward Penn Station’s reconstruction as the project moves into a preconstruction phase focused on operational studies, preliminary design and permitting.
“The rapid completion of a rigorous procurement process represents more than just delivering on a highly ambitious milestone; it demonstrates that Amtrak and USDOT are uniquely capable of making this vision a reality,” Andy Byford, special adviser to the Amtrak board overseeing the project, said in a statement.
Duffy and Federal Railroad Administration officials announced an additional $200 million investment in design and permitting on May 20, agency Administrator David Fink said in a statement.
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the project “must accomplish two things: dramatically improve the experience for every rider who passes through Penn Station, from the A train to the Acela, while ensuring the costs are not borne by New York commuters or taxpayers.”
According to a person familiar with the winning venture and the project but not authorized to speak publicly, the Halmar-Skanska team is a bifurcated structure: 50/50 development partners and 55/45 construction partners. Initial public materials released by the Transportation Dept. identified only Halmar as the selected master developer before issuing an update clarifying Skanska’s role.
Penn Transformation Partners CEO Peter E. Cipriano told ENR in a statement that the upgrade is «the most complex and important infrastructure project of our time, working together with a world class team of builders and designers, Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, the MTA and our partners in the community, we will deliver a new Penn Station.»
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Plans released this week call for a new Eighth Avenue entrance and train hall, replacement of existing concourses, additional retail space, improved wayfinding and at least limited through-running capability while preserving Madison Square Garden above the station.
Amtrak’s Penn Station schedule targets groundbreaking by the end of 2027.
Graphic: Amtrak
ENR previously reported that Penn’s redevelopment requirements call for consolidating passenger circulation into a single-level concourse arrangement intended to improve station movement and wayfinding.
Achieving that shift could require demolition of existing slabs, utility relocations and reconstruction of fire-rated separations while maintaining code-compliant egress throughout phased construction.
Those cutovers could prove especially sensitive because passenger circulation, fire-life-safety systems, platform access and railroad support spaces would need to remain functional as demolition and systems work advance in stages through the existing station.
The decision to keep Madison Square Garden in place preserves some of the project’s most significant structural constraints. Earlier concept materials released by Halmar highlighted internal reconfiguration and new access points, rather than proposals to relocate the arena. Working within the existing footprint will likely require temporary shoring, vibration control and tightly phased construction above active tracks and platforms.
Challenges continue below the concourse level, as well, with existing track and platform arrangements to navigate, including aging interlockings, limited clearances and shared operations among Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and NJ Transit rail systems.
Federal officials have also promoted at least limited through-running, allowing trains to continue through Penn Station rather than terminate there, as part of future operational improvements.
Penn Station Deep-Dive
Engineering Feasibility Study Executive Summary
Penn Station Capacity Expansion Fact Sheet
Construction staging may prove equally important. ENR reported in January that reconstruction scenarios would likely depend on coordinated outages, overnight work windows and temporary traction power, signal and communications systems to preserve daily rail operations.
The region has already seen how access coordination can affect active-rail delivery after Penn Station Access became the focus of a public dispute between MTA and Amtrak over missed outage windows, force-account staffing and access coordination.
At the same time, Halmar recently completed a major Penn Station Access milestone involving installation of a roughly 180-ft-long, 370-ton bridge span over the Bronx River in an extremely constrained corridor between an existing Amtrak bridge and adjacent development.
The operation relied on Hilman rollers and a heavy-duty air-winch system, with crews preassembling the structure off-site before pulling it into place.
A coalition of city, state, and federal officials has been vocal for months about the need to get the project back on a solid footing. As late as the end of April, lawmakers released a statement framing Penn Station’s redevelopment as “an opportunity to do something truly transformative.”
A public unveiling of the design is expected soon, according to the team insider, as the schedule now turns on permitting, commercial close, outage planning and operating assumptions still under study by the Federal Railroad Administration.
