celebration as nj gateway portal bridge project reaches 50% completion --
Elected officials, transportation leaders celebrate North Portal Bridge reaching 50% completion milestone
ByTom Bergeron(North Jersey) - May 14, 2024
After years of delays — and, quite frankly, decades of worries that the massive Gateway Tunnel project would ever come to be — the announcement Monday that the Portal North Bridge project was 50% finished was worthy of a celebration.
That’s why numerous elected officials and transportation leaders gathered Monday in Kearny to mark the occasion at a ceremony at the construction site.
The new bridge will replace the current 114-year-old swing bridge, which opens for maritime traffic, often resulting in a bottleneck along the busiest stretch of passenger rail in the country. The new bridge is a fixed span that eliminates the need to open and close.
U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-9th Dist.) was so excited, he nearly broke out into song.
“New Jersey’s own Bon Jovi sang about being ‘halfway there,’” he said. “But we are not living on any prayer: This new bridge is a reality.”
Pascrell said the impact of the bridge cannot be overstated.
“The primary purpose of government is to improve the daily lives of our neighbors,” he said. “When it is soon finished, this new bridge will better the lives of millions of our neighbors. Leadership matters. President (Joe) Biden, Gov. (Phil) Murphy, our delegation in Congress and state leaders have worked hand-in-hand and we have delivered as a team. I cannot wait to be right here to cut the ribbon to this great bridge to our state’s bright future.”
The Portal North Bridge is a new modern two-track, high-level, fixed-span bridge that will improve service and capacity along this section of the Northeast Corridor. The new Portal North Bridge will rise 50 feet over the Hackensack River, nearly 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.
more:
https://www.roi-nj.com/2024/05/14/in...ion-milestone/
Celebrating the milestone are, from left, Jerry Keenan of New Jersey Alliance for Action, Balpreet Grewal-Virk of the Gateway Development Commission, Kevin Corbett of New Jersey Transit, Janine Bauer of the Gateway Development Commission, Tony Coscia of Amtrak, Stephen Gardner of Amtrak, Kris Kolluri of the Gateway Development Commission, Amit Bose of the Federal Railroad Administration and Michael Culotta of the U.S. Department of Transportation. - Gateway Development Commission
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