New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Tuesday the NJ Transit Board of Directors had awarded Skanska/Traylor Bros. Joint Venture the construction contract for the new Portal North Bridge project.
The North Bridge project, part of the Gateway Program, will replace the existing 110-year-old swing bridge as a way to improve service and reliability along the Northeast Corridor for NJ Transit and Amtrak customers. The new bridge will be a modern two track, high level, fixed span bridge that will rise 50-feet over the Hackensack River allowing marine traffic to pass underneath it without interrupting rail traffic.
“Few infrastructure projects are as critical to the nation as replacing the aging Portal Bridge,” Murphy said. “With today’s step, NJ Transit is rapidly moving towards beginning the first phase of the largest infrastructure project in the United States. This award will not only bring a bridge that will resolve the long-standing bottlenecks plaguing New Jersey commuters, but will also create well-paying skilled labor jobs in the process. We would not be at this step today without our partners in the Biden Administration, NJ Transit, the New Jersey Department of Transportation, our federal delegation, Amtrak, and the State of New York.”
The project will cost an estimated $1.56 billion, and includes the demolition of the existing bridge, as well as the construction of retaining walls, deep foundations, concrete piers, structural steel bridge spans, and rail systems. Once construction begins the project is expected to take approximately five and a half years.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, NJ Transit, and Amtrak, the governor signed a Full Funding Grant Agreement, securing $766.5 million in Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funding for the project. It is the largest contract award in the history of NJ Transit.