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$11B midtown makeover

Here's where Port Authority Bus Terminal construction stands

By: Colleen Wilson
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... For commuters enduring most major transportation construction improvements, there is pain before improvement.
..... That will be the case at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, as an $11 billion project to reconstruct and expand the world's busiest bus terminal is underway. Once completed, 1,011 bus trips will be able to take place during rush hours, up from the 764 that traversed through the more than 70-year-old facility in 2019.
..... "It's going to be a huge improvement, But as you can imagine, trying to get this amount of work done in midtown Manhattan is a monumental undertaking - and it's going to be a bit bumpy," said Jay Shuffield, manager of regional transportation policy for the Port authority of New York and New Jersey.
..... Shuffield and David Torres, a senior project manager for the Port Authority, provided a presentation in December [2025] for the North Jersey Transpiration Planning Authority with updates on construction and plans to reroute passengers during the work, and they offered more details on how the new facilities will function.
..... Many of the 250,000 daily visitors to the terminal are NJ Transit commuters who for years have dealt with long, winding queues, outdated facilities and capacity issues.
..... Construction began in May 2025 to rebuild the ramps, build deck-overs and make preparations to build a new bus storage facility.
..... The deck-overs are areas south of what will be the future storage facility, and they consist of concrete slabs for staging during construction.
..... Once construction is over, they will be converted into 3.5 acres of publicly accessible open green space. The first phase of the deck-over project started in 2025 and is expected to wrap up in 2027.
..... The new ramp stricture - a vital piece that uniquely connects the terminal to the Lincoln Tunnel and allows buses to avoid city streets - will have multiple lanes, which will let buses pass a broken-down bus without backups.
..... The new design will also allow buses to change floors; currently, they have to leave the facility and then return in order to get to gate on a different floor.
..... At the same time, a new five-level storage facility will be built west of the existing terminal, and it will be able to store around 350 buses. Right now, the terminal is so overcrowded that most buses "deadhead," which means they must return to New Jersey empty.
..... Once completed, the new bus storage facility will initially serve as a temporary terminal while the old terminal is knocked down and rebuilt.
..... Work on the new ramps and storage facility is expected to continue through 2030.
..... The current bus terminal will be demolished and the new central terminal will be five floors with over 180 gates, which will accommodate buses that didn't previously fit in the old facility.
..... Articulated buses - eh long ones that bend in the middle - and double-decker buses such as those used by the interstate company Mega-bus will be able to sue the new terminal.

Part of 41st Street to join atrium

..... The building's expansion includes closing part of 41st Street, which is currently an active street but will be part of the central atrium of the terminal. Construction of the rebuilt main terminal is expected to take place between 2030 and 2035.
..... To accomplish these phases of massive construction. 242,000 daily bus commuters will endure some havoc and disruption o. But once completed, the new facilities will be able to accommodate 337,000 daily passengers will not always have direct access to the subways and will have to walk a block outside to reach the midtown subway lines. In addition, bus schedules will likely need to be adjusted, because traversing through active construction sites and temporary facilities is likely OT affect on-time performance.
..... "There's likely to be more impact to the availability for the bus carriers to maintain a full schedule and level of reliability just because of the level of construction that's going on and the disruptions here," Shuffield said.
..... "We don't want to sugarcoat it, either," he said. "People should be aware hat doing this level of work to get to the end product is going through a period of disruption."

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