{"id":459252,"date":"2025-12-20T04:13:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T04:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/459252\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T04:13:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T04:13:18","slug":"j-turnpike-project-2025-jersey-city-expansion-canceled-newark-bay-bridge-replacement-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/459252\/","title":{"rendered":"J Turnpike project 2025: Jersey City expansion canceled, Newark Bay Bridge replacement continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Phil Murphy announced Friday that the most controversial part of a $10.6 billion plan to widen the New Jersey Turnpike extension<\/a> from Bayonne through Jersey City has been dropped.<\/p>\n

The original $10.6 billion plan will be updated to remove new travel lanes east of Interchange 14A and add a direct link from the Turnpike Extension to port facilities in Bayonne and Jersey City, Gov. Murphy and Transportation Commissioner Fran O\u2019Connor said Friday in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

No changes will be made to the first phase of the plan, a $6.2 billion project to build twin cable-stay bridges that will replace a 69-year-old span that carries the Turnpike over Newark Bay. <\/p>\n

That project includes replacing 14 other bridges between Exit 14 in Newark and 14A in Bayonne. Construction of that project could start in Spring 2026. Each bridge will be four lanes wide. Murphy and O\u2019Connor said the revisions announced today will not affect that project in any way. <\/p>\n

The original proposal called for adding one travel lane in each direction between Interchanges 14A and 14C. Those lanes will no longer be built, they said.<\/p>\n

An estimated $500 million in savings from eliminating the widening between Exits 14A and 14C will be used to build new ramps connecting Interchange 14A to the ports in Bayonne. That work, designated as Project 2A, will reduce the mixing of truck traffic traveling to and from the port with local traffic in the interchange. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe new ramps will give trucks direct access to the port facilities and keep them out of Interchange 14A,\u201d said Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis in a statement. \u201cThat means that the passenger vehicles that use the interchange to get into and out of Bayonne and Jersey City will no longer be in conflict with those big trucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will reduce congestion and provide a less stressful trip for people driving through the interchange,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The remaining $4 billion will be used for other Turnpike Authority infrastructure projects in Hudson and Essex Counties \u2013 including the Western Spur, Harry Laderman Bridge, and Bayview Avenue Bridge at Interchange 14B.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Turnpike Authority will be able to spread the savings around to Project 2A and other critical infrastructure improvements in the region,\u201d said James Carone, Turnpike Authority Executive Director. <\/p>\n

That widening was opposed by officials in Newark, Jersey City, Hoboken and several groups based in those cities because of the effect of traffic and pollution on surrounding neighborhoods. Bayonne Mayor Davis supported the project.<\/p>\n

An Environmental Impact Study released<\/a> in 2023 concluded the project will have little to no adverse impact on adjacent neighborhoods, air quality, noise or traffic. But opponents questioned the accuracy of pre-COVID-19 traffic data used in the environmental studies for the project and asked for new environmental, traffic and cost studies <\/a>in 2025. <\/p>\n

The Turnpike Extension is one of two primary highway and bridge routes that connect to the Holland Tunnel.<\/p>\n

Opponents from EmpowerNJ and the Turnpike Trap Coalition disagreed about the width and need for the two new bridges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NJTA should repair or replace the existing bridge without expanding it,\u201d the groups said in a statement. \u201cWhile the outgoing Governor correctly decided not to expand the Turnpike east of Exit 14-A, the plan to expand and double the capacity of the Newark Bay Bridge now makes even less sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their concern is that four lanes of traffic from the new bridge would merge onto two highway lanes, forcing traffic to cut through neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increased traffic on the expanded Bridge will cause even more cars to cut through local Jersey City streets to reach the Holland Tunnel worsening Jersey City\u2019s already bad traffic and air,\u201d the groups said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hudson County elected officials thanked O\u2019Connor, and Murphy for listening to constituents. <\/p>\n

\u201cBetween concerns about induced demand, climate impact, and traffic impacts on the Jersey City and Hoboken communities, I have long opposed the Turnpike expansion as previously proposed,\u201d said State Sen. Raj Mukherji, D-Hudson, who is also Vice Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee. \u201cI am so deeply appreciative to the Governor and Commissioner for keeping an open mind,\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe reconfiguration of the plan to abandon the widening beyond the Bayonne exit is a welcome change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Angela V. McKnight, D-Hudson, called it a great compromise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese changes strengthen our infrastructure while keeping community well-being front and center and delivering significant cost savings,\u201d she said. \u201cStreamlining the flow of truck and local traffic at Interchange 14A with these new ramps will reduce congestion, improve safety for drivers, and make port operations more efficient.\u201c<\/p>\n

Labor leaders also praised the announcement for improving the plan and using the savings for other infrastructure projects. <\/p>\n

However, opponents worry that bottlenecks between the four-lane bridge and two-lane extension will eventually spark demands to expand the Turnpike east of Bayonne.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a P.R. stunt, not a compromise, that was announced without any input from the community or opponents of the project,\u201d EmpowerNJ and the Turnpike Trap Coalition said. No work was going to be done east of 14A for years. \u201cNothing prevents the Turnpike Authority from changing its mind when there will be demands to expand the Turnpike east of 14A because of increased bridge traffic.\u201d <\/p>\n

The project was first proposed in the Turnpike Authority\u2019s 2020 capital plan<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Supporters argued that 80% of the extension is carried on 1950s era elevated structures are nearing the end of their service life. <\/p>\n

In 2017, the Newark Bay bridge was closed for 36 hours for emergency repairs <\/a>after the eastbound bridge deck dropped several inches because bearings that support the deck rotated out of position.<\/p>\n

In May 2025, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a Finding of No Significant Impact<\/a> for the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Phil Murphy announced Friday that the most controversial part of a $10.6 billion plan to widen the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":459253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,209821,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-459252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bayonne","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkcity","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}