New Jersey Turnpike’s authority is moving forward with the upcoming steps of its planned Newark Bay-Hudson County, in the midst of public opposition and threats of demands aimed at derailing the $ 11 million effort to update the 8.1 mile runner aged by 8.1 kilometers between Newark and Jersey City.
Authority spokesman Tom Feney, says that the agency plans to start construction in 2026 in the most important and controversial phase of the program: the estimated 10 -year reconstruction, $ 6.1 billion from a 4.1 -mile section of a 70 -year -old steel piece through the Newark Bay Bridge. The new bridge will have new twin cable structures designed by the Parsons transport group. Other improvements to the first phase, designed by Michael Baker International and Gannett Fleming, include 15 bridge replacements and two trips added in each direction.
Feeney says the agency will announce the initial construction contracts this fall, starting with trees in Newark Bay that will serve as platforms to build the first cable bridge. According to the agency, the whole program will be financed by the income of Turnpike Toll.
Authority argues that the replacement of aisle infrastructure is essential for relieving congestion, supporting the transformation of stagnant urban neighborhoods and the adaptation of continuous growth in the nearby ports. Ports require structures capable of withstanding the volume and growing weight of truck traffic.
Although a four -year environmental analysis of the United States Coast Guard resulted in a significant impact at the beginning of the year, the project’s opponents argue that the process did not go far enough to weigh possible impacts.
Speaking at the final public audience of the agency on the first phase of June, Olivia Haller, New Jersey associated with the Regional Plan Association, blamed for “ lack of examination of other demand management approaches, the limited field of environmental evaluation, inconsistencies with state and local transport initiatives and the failure of the project to consider sufficiently induced demand ”.
Others have requested to limit the program to repair existing bridges, an option that authority says is not feasible due to the age and condition of structures. George Lobman, director of the Transportation Agencies of the Association of Public Services and Transport Contractors, reminded participants the growing vulnerability of the Newark Bay Bridge on the impacts of the ship.
“If it had been affected by a boat, that would drop him,” he said.
Despite the controversy that surrounds the program, Feeney said that the dialogue fostered by the process has been shown extremely valuable to shape the implementation strategy and strategy.
“Opponents and supporters have regularly participated in the monthly meetings of the Turnpike authority for the last two years,” he says. “We have received about 2,000 comments and some of these comments had an impact on the design.”
Feeney states that a ramp proposed for the new Newark Bay crossing was eliminated from the project in response to neighbors’ concerns about additional traffic on local streets. “The concerns we have heard of residents on possible impacts of life quality during construction led to the adoption of an adaptive management plan that would include noise, vibration and control and quality of air quality,” he added.
Feeney said that the June Public High Court was not the final opportunity of residents to be heard. “The Turnpike authority has committed to the commitment of the ongoing community through the construction phase,” he said.
The plans ask that the first new bridge of Newark Bay and update the road west between the 14 and 14th exchanges to complete -in 2031. With the traffic moved to the new structure, the existing bridges will be demolished and will begin on the road in the east direction and the bridge will begin. After the end of the first planned phase 2036, the work will begin to add a new travel lane in each direction throughout a section of about three miles in Bayonne and Jersey City.
According to the authority calendar, updates to improve access to the Holland tunnel in the final section of the hallway will be designed and built simultaneously with other phases, with the global program that will be completed by 2040.
The Agency recently awarded the contractor Joseph M. Sanzari Inc. A contract of $ 80.7 million to repair 11 bridges in the section of the first phase, keeping them in service until they can be replaced as part of the Newark Bay-Hudson County Extension Program. The work is expected to end until March 2028, the authority said.
The authority also plans to widen the southern part of the return between exchanges 1 and 4 of its current two lanes along a section of 36.5 miles to add a lane in each direction. He said that this would involve substantially replaced or adapted 56 of 66 higher structures, more than 70 years.
