Bayonne Bridge - Raising The Roadbed

Raising The Roadbed

The span presents a difficult obstacle to large container ships passing under it on the way to and from Newark Bay. Its clearance of between 151 to 156 feet (46–48 m) above the Kill Van Kull depending on the tide means that some of today's ships, which can reach 175 feet (53 m) above the waterline, must fold down antenna masts, take on ballast or wait for low tide to pass through. The problem will become more serious after the Panama Canal expansion project allows larger Panamax ships to become commonplace.

The Port Authority is planning to raise the bridge's clearance to 215 feet (66 m) by building a new roadway above the existing roadway within the current arch structure. A gantry crane rolling on top of the arch would construct one rope-supported section of the new roadway at a time, using a temporary beam to support the existing roadway while each rope is replaced. The existing roadway would then be removed. The Port Authority has allocated $1 billion in its capital program to pay for the project, and believes it is possible to build the new roadway without interrupting traffic flow between Staten Island and Bayonne. In July 2012 the Port Authority announced construction would begin in Summer 2013, to be completed by late 2016. In this timeline, removal of the existing roadway would be completed by late 2015, in time for the opening of the widened Panama Canal.

The Port Authority says its designs for this program will not preclude adding mass transit in the future. Extending the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line to Staten Island over the bridge has been proposed.

The Port Authority commissioned a study of the question by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, completed in 2009, and authorized up to $10 million for planning and engineering services to develop options to deal with the bridge's low clearance. The Army Corps of Engineers study looked at three options to deal with the height-challenged bridge. The quickest option they identified was a $1.32 billion project to jack up the bridge to increase its height by 40 percent, which could be accomplished by 2019 at the earliest. It will need a clearance of 215 feet (66 m) to handle the new ships. Another option is to build a new cable-stayed bridge, which would cost $2.15 billion and take until 2022. The most expensive option would be to get rid of the bridge altogether and replace it with a tunnel through which traffic would traverse under the Kill Van Kull. This option would take to 2024 to complete and cost $2.2 to $3 billion.

The Corps of Engineers estimated that raising the bridge would produce a $3.3 billion dollar national benefit, noting that 12% of all US international containers pass under the bridge. Congressmen from both New York and New Jersey are pressing the Port Authority to act quickly. In March 2012, the PANYNJ submitted a request to the federal government for an expedited environmental review process, which was approved in July 2012.

Improvements at Port Jersey on the Upper New York Bay are also underway.