retaining wall in a below-grade stretch of the Belt Line in southern Charles Village collapsed after a heavy rainstorm, sending part of East 26th Street and a number of cars onto the tracks. No one was injured but the tracks were blocked by debris, shutting down railroad operations as well as the city block directly above them. On May 2, 2014, freight trains once again began running through the tunnels along this stretch of the Baltimore Belt Line. East 26th Street was reopened to vehicular traffic a year later. Howard Street Tunnel clearance improvements Reconstructing the Howard Street Tunnel to accommodate double-stacked intermodal containers had been once thought to cost $1–3 billion. However, in April 2016, a $425 million plan was revealed that would create the needed of additional clearance in the tunnel by trimming and notching its arched ceiling, lowering its floor, and using steel crossties, which have a lower profile than wood crossties. The Maryland Department of Transportation subsequently applied for a $155 million FY2016 FASTLANE grant to help fund a project based on this lower-cost plan, but the grant was not received. In December 2016, MDOT reapplied for a FASTLANE grant of the same amount in the FY2017 round of funding. In addition to the federal funds expected from the grant, the State of Maryland would contribute $145M, and CSX $125M, towards the cost of the project. In expectation of the grant funding, CSX is investing $25M in the tunnel$21M to improve its water discharge system, and $4M for engineering and design of the clearance improvements. The project, which would also increase the clearance at nine bridges north of the tunnel, would last 4–5 years (due to having to be scheduled around active rail traffic), create about 500 construction jobs, and would result in 178,000 containers per year being moved by rail from the Port of Baltimore instead of by truck. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said that the state would explore other funding solutions if the FY2017 FASTLANE grant is not received. On July 22, 2019, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced the award of $125 million in federal infrastructure funding for the project. See also Railroad electrification in the United States List of tunnels documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Maryland References "The Howard Street Tunnel- Moving the Freight Through Baltimore", Smith, Jeffrey, The National Railway Bulletin, Volume 66, Number 5, 2001 "Baltimore's Unseen