Photo courtesy of NJ TRANSIT
Infrastructure
On Nov 27, 2024
Following a 30-hour journey down the Hudson River, the first of three massive arches to support the new Portal North Bridge arrived at the construction site in Kearny, yesterday. The new bridge will replace the current 114-year-old swing bridge, which opens for maritime traffic and often has mechanical issues, resulting in service delays. The new structure is a fixed span bridge that eliminates the need to open and close, improving the experiences of thousands of daily commuters along the busiest stretch of passenger rail in the country.
“Today marks an important milestone for the Gateway Program with the arrival of a new arch that will help replace the century old Portal North Bridge,” said Gov. Phil Murphy. “Together, we are transforming the Portal North Bridge into an access point that will provide our rail passengers with a more reliable commute, and our entire region with economic opportunity. We are now proudly one step closer to rebuilding our regional infrastructure and assuring that the most important public works project in America continues to move forward.”
Senator Cory Booker commented, “Over the last 10 years, my colleagues and I have secured nearly $1 billion in federal funding to strengthen this critical railway, the first major project under construction in the Gateway Program. I look forward to the continued progress of ongoing infrastructure upgrades across New Jersey.”
Three tugboats, a heavy transport barge and a spacer barge towed the 5 million-pound, 400-foot-long, 50-foot-wide arch down the Hudson River beginning at the Port of Coeymans near Albany, NY. Traveling an average of 5 knots (about 5.75 miles per hour) down the Hudson River, it arrived near the bridge site in Kearny 30 hours later.
The Portal North Bridge is a new modern two-track, high-level, fixed-span bridge that will rise 50 feet over the Hackensack River, more than doubling the height clearance and will allow marine traffic to pass underneath without interrupting rail traffic.
The project is being funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, New Jersey, New York, and Amtrak. In January 2021, Murphy announced the signing of a Full Funding Grant Agreement which secured $766.5 million in Federal Transit Administration funding to support the project’s construction.
In October 2021, and NJ TRANSIT announced the approval of a $1.6 billion construction contract awarded to Skanska/Traylor Bros PNB Joint Venture (STJV) for the construction of the new Portal North Bridge. The contract represents the single largest construction award in NJ TRANSIT’s history.
The project spans 2.44 miles of the Northeast Corridor line and includes construction of retaining walls, deep foundations, concrete piers, structural steel bridge spans, rail systems, demolition of the existing bridge, and related incidental works.
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