The long, sad, unending odyssey of the Pulaski Skyway repairs | Quigley (2024)

If you’re hoping the ramp between Broadway in Jersey City and the Pulaski Skyway will reopen soon, don’t hold your breath. Target date is late 2026.

The condition of the Skyway was a concern for a long time. Many drivers went miles out of their way to avoid what they saw as a dangerous road in even more dangerous condition. Despite repairs undertaken in 1984, when it became obvious the Skyway was showing its age, the structure continued to deteriorate.

In 2007 it was declared one of New Jersey’s deficient bridges, but the price to do a thorough repair job was alarming. Everyone agreed it had to be done, but no one took any real action to get it done.

By 2011, then-Gov. Chris Christie said repair plans had been stalled too long, and he demanded the Port Authority pony up $1.8 billion for the Skyway and some other transportation projects.

Plans were finalized, contracts were awarded, and work finally began in 2014. The ending date was promised as 2016.

But engineers and workers soon discovered the Skyway was in much worse shape than they knew. More studies would have to be undertaken, more plans made, more contracts awarded. Work slowed down.

Of course, costs went up, so more money had to be allocated, too. The ending date was shifted to 2018. Then to 2020.

Most of the work was completed that year, but the Broadway ramp remained closed. Drivers could exit nearer the Tonnelle Circle or continue on to the Holland Tunnel, but drivers who wanted to head south from the Skyway had to go via local roads in a confusing pattern.

Jersey City officials requested the Broadway ramp be re-opened eastbound, and it was -- from February 2020 to November 2021. Then it was shut down again.

A contract was awarded in May 2021 for $161.5 million, and work began a few months later. A portion of the ramp deck was removed, along with one section of the ramp.

State Department of Transportation officials explained the ramp is hung from the main Skyway framework. The framework must be repaired and strengthened before the ramp itself is rebuilt below. Old steel bearings will be replaced with new flexible disc bearings.

Although it isn’t visible to most drivers, there’s been a lot going on beneath the Skyway in that area, according to the DOT.

Besides the initial demolition of the old ramp structure, the contractor has been doing major steel repairs on mainline trusses over the ramp. The main truss is being blast-cleaned and painted, the concrete is being rehabilitated, and bridge bearings are being replaced.

The ramp had to be removed to allow temporary supports for the contractors working overhead. It is expected to take another 30 months for this work to be completed. Then everything will be painted and the Broadway exit and access will be restored.

Everyone hopes the entire length of the Skyway will become not only safer, but as good-looking as it used to be. At its opening, it was declared “the most beautiful steel bridge in America.”

It opened on Thanksgiving Day 1932 as the nation’s first “super highway.” The last part of Route 1 extension, it offered controlled access to the Holland Tunnel.

The Skyway never had space for pedestrians or bike lanes but drivers loved it immediately. And it was hailed as the forerunner of highways of the future.

Only two years later, however, it was called a “suicide highway” with a “death lane.”

It had five narrow lanes, two in each direction and a center one where vehicles could pull over for repairs. But drivers going in both directions used it as a passing lane, resulting in deadly head-on crashes.

Soon, it was restriped to allow only four lanes and trucks were banned from using it.

Truckers fought the ban in court but lost. Then-Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague got into labor disputes with unions. People were asked to vote on Skyway features, but the elections were found to have been rigged, and parties on both sides were involved in several violent incidents with serious injuries and one death.

Things settled down after a while and the Skyway became a vital link between Newark Airport and the tunnel.

While work continues, residents of Marion Gardens and other nearby neighborhoods may hear sandblasting and steel repair noises, and they’ll see containment systems, scaffolding, and large heavy equipment under the Skyway.

Then in 2026, there should only be the sounds of heavy traffic once again.

Facts about the Skyway

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  • Its official name is the General Casimir Pulaski Memorial Skyway, named for the Polish military leader who helped train and lead Continental Army troops during the American Revolution.
  • It is 3.5 miles long and peaks at 135 feet above ground, crossing over railroad tracks, the Meadowlands, the New Jersey Turnpike and the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers.
  • It opened in 1932.
  • It has riveted construction and cantilevered trusses supported by concrete columns.
  • It was designed by Danish-born engineer Sigvald Johannesson.
  • It cost $20 million to build and close to $1 billion to renovate.
  • It is in both state and federal registers of historic places.
  • It handles about 74,000 vehicles a day.
  • Although the Skyway is a part of Route 1, which mainly is a north-south road, the Skyway runs east-west between Newark and Jersey City.
  • During its construction, 14 workers died in accidents or related violence.
  • The Skyway was featured in the 1938 radio drama “The War of the Worlds,” in which Orson Welles reported aliens were taking over the country, the 1979 film “Hair,” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1943 film “Shadow of a Doubt,” and the opening montages of every episode of “The Sopranos.”

A former assemblywoman from Jersey City, Joan Quigley is the president and CEO of North Hudson Community Action Corp.

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The long, sad, unending odyssey of the Pulaski Skyway repairs | Quigley (2024)

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