Guest feature: Jamie Mangrum is Director of Communications at the Maryland Department of Labor. Follow Labor on Facebook  and Twitter .

Governor Wes Moore recently joined an announcement that highlighted Amtrak, Baltimore City, and the state of Maryland’s commitment to support the Baltimore Workforce Hub.

In May, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that Baltimore would be one of the five workforce hubs  in the nation. The commitments and goals of support include hiring Baltimore residents to work on the Frederick Douglass Tunnel project; providing more union job opportunities to Baltimore residents; training workers for construction careers; and scaling the work across the Northeast Corridor.

Baltimore will be the site of historic investments in transportation. Construction will soon begin on the Amtrak Frederick Douglass Tunnel, which is receiving $4.7 billion in investment from the U.S. Department of Transportation and $450 million from the Maryland Department of Transportation. This project will start with approximately 300 workers and increase to 1,000 workers at its peak. The project includes the reconstruction of the West Baltimore MARC Station, which will support the continued enhancement of transportation assets for West Baltimore alongside the Baltimore Red Line and West Baltimore United projects.

Over the next 5 years, several other federally-assisted projects will begin construction in Baltimore, with the U.S. Department of Transportation investing $24 billion in the Northeast Corridor before 2026. Through construction and operation, these projects are expected to create 2,700 jobs.

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Photo courtesy of the Executive Office of the Governor