6 events in Passaic County with a date

Revised bridge project praised

Some raise concerns, but contracts are OK'd

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

..... Amid jubilation at the news of Governor Mikie Sherrill's decision to scale back the controversial Newark Bay Bridge project, others voiced concern about pollution, traffic with a one-span solution.
..... Hudson County residents, environmentalists and politicians weighed in on the sudden decision to downsize construction d of the new bridge to a one-span four-lane structure with shoulders, instead of the original plans to double the number of lanes with a two-span crossing.
..... Sherrill's announcement came on Tuesday, March 3, [2026] a day before the Turnpike Authority board voted on the first three contracts of what is now a $6.7 billion, multi-project program, down from $10.7 billion.
..... "I have lived in Bayonne for year 25 years and I drive, I bike, take transit, and today I'm just really happy," Miso Dko said during the public speaker portion of the Turnpike Authority's rescheduled monthly meeting on March 4. [2026] "We were never going to solve traffic with more traffic."
..... John Reichman of EmpowerNJ, an environmental coalition, called Sherrill's decision "wise, bold and courageous."
..... "It will save billions of dollars: it will provide funds for transit; it will provide for cleaner air and stop a seriously flawed project that would have made traffic worse," Reichman said.
..... Lina Drillman, a 67-year-old Bayonne resident, called in to the meeting to thank the governor for scaling back the project but is still concerned about pollution.
..... "Every day in my walk form where I live on 27th Street uptown toward the direction of the bridge - right where Marist High School was taken down - the air quality there is extremely poor," she said, asking whether a wall could be erected. "I never realized how much the building there prevented the air, which is the exhaust from the vehicles going over the bridge coming into Bayonne."
..... Joseph Skillender Jr., a Bayonne resident and director of the city's Department of Planning, Zoning and Development, said he is concerned about how traffic will be managed now that there's a new UPS facility, where 100,000 package move an hour, as well as terminal expansion plans at Port Liberty Bayonne and the new Paramount film studio, expected to bring 3,000 new jobs.
..... "The trucks are going to stall on the bridge. The congestion that is going to exist now is only going to get worsen is going to negatively impact the residents of Bayonne," Skillender said.
..... "We're disappointed now that that's being scaled back because of some of the conversations that we had in regards to the immediate redevelopment and infrastructure needs," he said.
..... Diane Vitale, a 63-year-old lifelong Bayonne resident, said the city is already chocked with traffic and wants to know how that will be addressed.
..... "Just to get out of town it takes us about an hour and a half just to get over that one bridge for a normal 20-minute ride somewhere," she said.

Juggling myriad challenges

..... For years, this project has elicited polarizing reactions from the public because of concerns about its expensive price tag and environmental impact. critics also questioned the project's ability to solve traffic and voiced their desire to see the money used on mass transit instead.
..... The 70-year-old bridge and its surrounding elevated structure are in dire need of replacement.
..... A number of unions trumped the safety improvements the projects provided and labor commitments that would cerate 14 years of well-paying jobs to construct the original full program.
..... The revised plan will support 19,000 jobs, including thousands of union construction jobs, and allow safety concerns about the about the old bridge by completing the new bridge by 2031, five years earlier that the prior plan, the governor;s office said.
..... The turnpike's own environmental report predicted that doubling the size of the bridge would increase car traffic 32% during peak hours by 2050, while a no-expansion alternative would increase the number of vehicle 8% by 2050.
..... New Jersey state Senator Raj Mukherji was instrumental in pushing the Sherrill administration to reconsider the size of the proposed new bridge. Even eh was surprised by how quickly and decisively the step was taken.
..... "This approach balances safety and job creation and transportation needs with local traffic impacts and environmental public health and fiscal concerns," Mukherji said. "This is a lot for any public official to juggle, and these folks figured it out in a mater of weeks."
..... Kris Kolluri, the Turnpike Authority's executive director, framed the decision as one of "fiscal prudence" and safety.
..... "The bridge that currently exists over Newark Bay has to be decommissioned by 2031. It has to be; it is a structurally defiant bridge. It's functionally obsolete, and we need a 21st-century bridge," Kolluri said.
..... He added that it is his fiduciary responsibility to present a plan that "we have the money for right now."

Contracts set, construction next

..... Three contracts, together worth more than $121 million, were approved by the turnpike board at the March 4 [2026] meeting to begin constructions on the new bridge.
..... Farmingdale-based George Harms Construction Company will build one timber trestle from the Newark side for $38.3 million, and PFK-Mark III of Newtown, Pennsylvania, will build the other on the Bayonne side for $74.1 million. the Newark Trestle project is expected to be finished next March and the Bayonne one next April. [2027]
..... PKF was the lowest of three bidders, and tis estimate was just shy of the engineer's estimate of $78.9 million. Harmas, however, was one of eight bidders, and its proposal was well below the engineer;s estimate of $82.5 million.
..... Turnpike Authority officials said Harms' bid was considered "competent" because of its work on similar projects and its competitive price for steel products.
..... "Engineering Departments representatives confirmed with [Harms] that they can perform the work at the bid prices," officials wrote in documents provided to the Turnpike Authority board.
..... STV Incorporated, in Lawrenceville, received the highest technical rating for its proposal to provide construction supervision services, and it beat out two other bidders. STV's initial contract is worth about $9 million, but the scope of work is likely to change over the course of the program.

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