Jersey commuters got the “at last” moment they’ve waited years for on Monday, when U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Gov. Phil Murphy and other officials attended the second ground breaking ceremony to mark the start of work to replace the 112-year old Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River in Kearny.
Yes, this is the second ceremony held at the cranky swing bridge on the busy Northeast Corridor line that’s infamous for refusing to close all the way until wok crews “persuade” it with sledgehammers. But this is the one that counts in the mind of rail commuters as it means construction is starting.
Unlike the 2017 ceremony held by ex-Gov. Chris Christie, that commemorated the start of $20 million in preliminary work, Monday’s ceremony marked the start of construction of a new bridge. And it came with a pledge from the state’s top transportation official to finish the bridge project on time and on budget.
There were technically three back-to-back ceremonial groundbreakings to accommodate most of the state’s congressional delegation and a host of public officials and dignitaries, with Buttigieg standing at center stage with Murphy, wielding gold-painted shovels and flinging soil from a ceremonial dirt pile.
Real construction workers were nearby with massive machinery to do the actual bridge building, estimated to create some 15,000 jobs, according to NJ Transit President and CEO Kevin S. Corbett.
Of all the remarks made during the ceremony, it might be the pledge made by state Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti that matters most to commuters and train travelers – to get the new bridge finished on-time and on-budget.
“My job is to make that commitment ... to repay you for your constant commitment with the promise of successful completion of that bridge ... to have a ribbon cutting in 2026,” she said. “We will deliver Portal North on time and, I already told Kevin, on budget.”
The new span will be built next to the old bridge. Under a preliminary schedule, the first track is scheduled to be open in November 2025. The last track could be put into service in July 2026, with full completion targeted for 2027.
“Portal Bridge celebrated its 112th year, that’s a long run in any job. In 2027, it will be torn down and that day can’t come quickly enough,” Murphy said.
The bridge project has a roughly $1.8 billion cost, however, the contract allows an additional 5% for contingencies to cover unforeseen work.
A notice to proceed was issued in April on a $1.559 billion construction contract to build the new span, awarded by NJ Transit’s board in October 2021. The new bridge won’t be a moveable bridge, but will be 50 feet over the Hackensack River and will allow marine traffic to pass underneath without having to open and interrupt train traffic.
The old two-track bridge is the busiest rail bridge in the nation and a chokepoint on the Northeast Corridor line, used by about 450 Amtrak and NJ Transit trains each day.
Much tribute was paid to the tag team efforts by the state’s congressional delegation to keep the Portal bridge project alive during the Trump administration.
Murphy, referring to the infamous 1927 New York Yankees lineup, honored the “Murderer’s row of the state congressional delegation,” raging from U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., to congressional members who fought to keep funding in the federal budget for Portal Bridge.
“The congressional delegation never hesitated to remind me of the importance of this project ... now it’s happening,” Buttigieg said. “This project is not just for residents of New York and New Jersey, but for people across the country.”
Booker, delivering a rousing speech, turned to football metaphors to describe the never give up attitude of the delegation, “blocking, tackling, and fight and squeeze ... little drabs of money to keep this project doing forward funding” until the project got over the goal line.
But, looking ahead to the Gateway Tunnel project and name checking other rail projects from around the world, Booker called for the United States to return to being the global leader in infrastructure.
“I’m so frustrated with other countries out Americaning us,” Booker said. “We defined infrastructure on the planet for three generations. We led in every area. But now we’ve slipped behind. France builds a 300 mph high speed rail, China builds thousand of miles of high speed rail, and the fastest corridor (in the United States) runs a half hour slower than it did in the 1960s.”
“It should tick us off, if we’re patriots .... (The Portal Bridge is) a downpayment on where we should go.”
Booker’s comments, like those from others, were among many referring to the region generating 20% of the nation’s gross domestic product and the importance of its economic vitality to the United States.
“The president is famously a big believer in passenger rail and a big believer in good paying jobs. That’s what you’re seeing here,” Buttigieg said. Federal grant funding is providing $766 million toward the project, with another $97 million from Amtrak.
The ceremony also marks the first project started as part of the larger Gateway Program that was introduced in 2011 after Christie canceled the ARC tunnel project in October 2010 over concerns about cost overruns.
The signature Gateway project that is awaiting federal funding is the $12.3 billion Gateway Tunnel that includes building two new tunnels under the Hudson River and rehabilitating the existing 111-year-old-tunnels, which were damaged by brackish flood waters from Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.
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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com.
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Project to replace ancient Portal Bridge begins with pledge to do it ‘on time and on budget’ - NJ.com
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