65 advocacy groups, collectively calling themselves the Turnpike Trap Coalition, wrote a letter to Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) yesterday seeking a compromise where the controversial Turnpike widening project includes just one new bridge instead of two.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“We, the undersigned 65 groups, applaud the appointment of Kris Kolluri to head both the NJ Turnpike Authority and NJ Transit, which will allow the State to better prioritize transportation projects and spending, and reexamine whether existing plans best serve the transportation needs of New Jersey residents and businesses,” the letter says.
“In that spirit, we respectfully urge you to reexamine and change NJTA’s deeply unpopular and unaffordable $10.7 billion plan to expand the Newark Bay-Hudson County Extension. This plan conflicts with many of the core goals of your administration, especially affordability, governmental efficiency and improving public transit.”
They continue that drivers and residents alike should not be on the hook for this project, going on to say that they disagree that the only way to repair the Newark Bay Bridge, which links Jersey City and Newark, is to build two new, four-lane bridges.
Instead, they believe one new bridge with either four of six lanes would accomplish the same goal while saving billions of dollars, reducing air and noise pollution along with construction time, allowing revenue to be allocated to public transit, and removing the possibility of litigation.
“NJTA’s December 2025 announcement that it is not currently planning to add a new travel lane east of the Bridge makes doubling the size of the Bridge even more problematic: four lanes of Bridge traffic will merge into two lanes causing a massive bottleneck and increasing traffic on local Jersey City streets,” the letter further states.
“We will potentially be spending $10.7 billion to make traffic worse. The bottleneck at the Bridge would also incentivize NJTA to reverse course and add a travel lane east of the Bridge.”
At the end of last year, The New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) announced that they were abandoning the plan to expand to six lanes in Jersey City, sticking to two instead, which then-incoming Mayor James Solomon applauded, but also sought more progress.
32nd Legislative District Assembly members Ravi Bhalla and Katie Brennan, also prior to taking office, then joined advocates in saying that the new proposal still leaves much to be desired.
Brennan and Bhalla reiterated their opposition to the project today, as did the state senator of their district, Raj Mukherji.
“The Turnpike Newark Bay expansion as presently proposed doesn’t reflect progress – it will
cause unnecessary pollution and congestion that ignores 21st century climate and public health realities,” he said.
“Infrastructure should connect communities, not divide them, and it’s time to revisit this project with a renewed focus on regional transit needs, equity, and impacts on the people who will live in its shadow.”
Further, yesterday’s letter calls on Sherrill’s administration to reconsider their plans east of the Newark Bay Bridge.
“The State should also be reexamining NJTA’s expansion plans east of the Bridge, which still call for tearing down the existing elevated highway and replacing it with something bigger. The State should consider and solicit proposals for alternative plans such as replacing the elevated highway with a boulevard, as has been successfully done around the country,” the advocates wrote.
“This could potentially lead to the development of thousands of new housing units and billions of dollars in economic development. The entire NB-HCE Project needs to be reexamined with new eyes and public input. We look forward to hearing back from you and further discussing our concerns about the Project and how to change the Project to best effectuate the Governor’s goals.”
Last month, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, through a spokesman, said that they had evaluated a single-bridge option and deemed that it was not feasible.
Sherrill’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday morning, but she told HCV in August, back when she was the gubernatorial Democratic nominee, that project can be “more innovative,” but Phase I is a must.
“Now, we’ve got to move forward, especially on that first part of it because that is the bridge portion and that bridge has an ‘F’ rating, right now you often see the shoulder used as a lane, that emergency vehicles cannot get on the bridge, it’s very dangerous, so we need that update, but I think there are many good ideas about how we can be more innovative in this project and as governor I’m gonna demand those,” she said at the time.
One bridge should have always been the plan. Wasteful boondoggle from the start.
As a resident who lives off the Turnpike in Greenville, I’m pissed off that these rich people from downtown with too much time on their hands have decided to oppose this bridge project in every way possible. I drive over the bridge for work almost every day and it is in desperate need of replacement – rusting is visible on the bridge and there is terrible traffic at nearly all hours because of the Bayonne exit and the truck traffic that goes to the Port. Middle class and working class people don’t have time to support the project because they are too busy working.
If NJTA has done the studies, there is minimal environmental impact, and our broke and inept government actually has the wherewithal to get this done, let’s do it. Too much time is spent being opposed to things nowadays. Everyone is a performance artist whether it is from the right or the left (like it is here). Let’s figure out how to help move it forward in a way that makes rather than trying to get attention for a social media story.
Also, if you are a rich person downtown really looking for an issue that needs to be addressed, let’s talk about the non-stop helicopters that spray lead on us everyday. Please focus your attention there.
Why not just build a bridge from newark 24 forty in bayonne , turnpike , south could hit it and hit four forty directly , or they could pass it to fifteen e and hit the ports on the east side , and it doesn’t have the bottleneck go through jersey city