Sherrill trims Newark bridge project
Order four lanes instead of eight, reversing Murphy plan
By: Colleen Wilson
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... The Sherrill administration is scaling back the New Jersey Turnpike Authority's highly controversial New Bay Bridge expansion project.
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The agency will begin "immediate construction of a four-lane bridge with shoulders and improvements," said a statement issued by the office of Governor Mikie Sherrill on March 3. [2026]
..... The plan advanced by the Murphy administration was for a twin-span, eight-lane bridge that would have doubled the size of the decaying current single-span, four-lane bridge, built in 1956.
..... "I am also recommending that the turnpike Board continue to advance design and permitting work on the roadway structure leading to the Holland tunnel for safety improvements only, without expanding capacity," Sherrill said.
..... "The project will also allow traffic to shift off the aging existing bridge by 2031, consistent with [National Transportation safety Board] concerns, she said.
..... This move from the Sherrill administration is significant given the first contract for bridge reconstruction is expected to be awarded in early 2026, with construction starting in the spring. It's also a reversal from the Murphy administration, which spent years advancing this project despite heavy criticism that it ran counter to former Governor Phil Murphy's oft-repeated message that he had one of the best environmental record among governors in the United States.
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About a month before leaving office, Murphy announced that the stretch of highway between 14A and 14C between Bayonne and the Holland Tunnel would no longer increase to six lanes from its current four. The $500 million in saved project costs would go toward new ramps at Interchange 14A to help trucks reach Port Liberty Bayonne.
..... He left intact the Newark Bay Bridge project, also known as the Vincent R. Casciano Memorial Bridge.
..... In the original proposal, the Newark Bay Bridge project was the first in a multiphase, $10.7 billion program to rebuild the mostly elevated highway with 29 bridges over 8.1 miles between Jersey City, Newark and Bayonne. The existing structure is past its useful life and the Newark Bay Bridge requires lanes to be shut down on a monthly base for maintenance work, including a closure in 2017 for 36 hours due to emergency repairs.
..... Now the full program is estimated to cost $6.7 billion, a 37% decrease in cost.
..... Transit advocates, environmentalists, local politicians and some who live near the bridge raised concerns in recent years that the projects would increase pollution and traffic and said the money could be better spent on mass tansit proejcts.
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The original program that called for widening the highway and addling lanes would have increased traffic more than if it kept the current configuration, said the federal environmental review documents.
..... For example, the number of vehicles going toward the Holland Tunnel was projected to increase to 5,986 during peak morning runs hours by 2050, up from 4,533 vehicles during those hours in 2021, a 32% increase. Without widening the highway, the number of vehicles during peak morning rush hours was projected to be 4,909, up 376 from the 2021 figure,an 8% increase.