Critics say altered turnpike project is a bridge too far
By: Colleen Wilson
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... One of the most controversial transportation projects in North Jersey will now be altered to reduce the number of proposed vehicle lanes and add ramps to access Port Liberty Bayonne - a decision Governor Phil Murphy announced in the waning days of his last term in office.
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The projects are known as the Newark Bay-Hudson County Extension Improvement Program a multi-phase $10.7 billion program to reconstruct an 8.1 mile stretch of elevated highway and bridges between Newark, Bayonne and Jersey City leading to the entrance to the Holland Tunnel.
..... For years, the project has been criticized by local leaders and environmental advocates, who say it will increase pollutants when the money could be better spent on mass transit.
..... Advocates of the projects, largely led by those in organized labor whose members will get paid to work on the lengthy and complicated construction, say it provides good union jobs, will help reduce traffic to the ports and is necessary because the current infrastructure needs replacement.
..... "The communities adjacent to the Turnpike Extension are growing quickly and our ports are taking on a higher and higher volume of cargo and work," Murphy said in the statement announcing the changes, which hit inboxes at 5:05 PM. on the Friday before Christmas.
..... "After considerable review, we have re-envisioned the projects within the broader program and found a way to make this great investment even better for our residents, infrastructure and economy," Murphy said.
..... A coalition of groups that oppose the program said the timing of the announcement was "no accident" and were skeptical of the new plans.
..... "We would be the first to cheer a true.
..... "These things take time," Carone said. "It isn't rash decision, but again, as we see from our consultants and as we see things building up in hat area, we just felt as though this was a better use of our time, of our money and our efforts."Murphy's press office declined to comment on why his administration made the changes so late into his second term,
Lingering questions and concerns
..... Asked why the turnpike is moving ahead with doubling the lanes on the Newark Bay Bridge after eliminating the lane expansion of the portion after Interchanged 14A, turnpike Authority spokesman Tom Feeney said those lanes are needed to meet the "purpose and need" presented in the project application to federal authorities.
..... The purpose, he said, "is to get sufficient capacity, to get traffic, among other places, into and out of Bayonne, to get to the ports, Bayonne and Jersey City. So that was necessary to meet the purpose and needs." The narrowing of turnpike lanes heading east for the expanded Newark Bay Bridge could increase traffic, said a statement issued by the coalition of advocates against the project. doubling the capacity of the bridge "now make even less sense," the statement said. "Four lanes of eastbound bridge traffic will now perpetually merge into two lanes at Exit 14A causing monumental and continual traffic jams, leading to the very thing NJTA is supposedly working to reduce - traffic congestion," the statesmen said.
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A joint statement from Katie Brennan and Ravi Bhalla, who were elected in November [2025] to join the state Assembly representing Hoboken and Jersey city, called the projects "fundamentally flawed" and want to see the Newark bay Bridge lanes reduced.
..... Raj Mukherji, a state senator who represents the same district Brennan and Bhalla will represent said, "The reconfiguration of the plan to abandon the widening beyond the Bayonne exit is a welcome change that underscores this administration's respect for urban communities and their ability to balance competing interests."
..... Mukherji's comments were included in the announcement from Murphy.