KEARNY, New Jersey – Following a 30-hour journey down the Hudson River, the first of three massive arches to support the new Portal North Bridge arrived at the construction site, bringing the project a giant leap closer to completion.
The new bridge will replace the 114-year-old swing bridge, which opens for maritime traffic and often has mechanical issues that cause service delays. The new bridge is a fixed span that eliminates the need to open and close, improving the experiences of thousands of daily commuters along the busiest stretch of passenger rail in the country.
Three tugboats, a heavy transport barge and a spacer barge towed the 5 million-pound, 400-foot-long, 50-foot-wide arch down the Hudson River beginning at the Port of Coeymans near Albany, NY. Traveling an average of 5 knots (about 5.75 miles per hour) down the Hudson River, it arrived near the bridge site in Kearny 30 hours later.
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. It will rise 50 feet over the Hackensack River, more than doubling the height clearance. Marine traffic will be able to pass underneath without interrupting rail traffic.
The Portal North Bridge project will eliminate the 114-year-old swing bridge, which has been the enduring source of major service disruptions for NJ Transit and Amtrak customers traveling on the Northeast Corridor.
The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, New Jersey, New York, and Amtrak. In January 2021, Governor Murphy signed a full funding grant agreement, which secured $766.5 million in Federal Transit Administration funding to support its construction.
In October 2021, Governor Murphy and NJ Transit approved a nearly $1.6 billion construction contract awarded to the Skanska/Traylor Bros PNB Joint Venture to construct the new Portal North Bridge. The contract represents the single largest construction award in NJ Transit’s history.
The Portal North Bridge project spans 2.44 miles of the Northeast Corridor line. It includes the construction of retaining walls, deep foundations, concrete piers, structural steel bridge spans, rail systems, demolition of the existing bridge, and related incidental works.
The Portal North Bridge project is a critical component of the larger Gateway Program, which will eventually double rail capacity between Newark and New York.
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