NJ Scales Back Part of Gov. Murphy’s Turnpike Boondoggle

There’s now one less thing for New Yorkers to dislike about New Jersey.

New Garden State Gov. Mikie Sherrill has killed her predecessor's plan to build a twin-span, eight-lane bridge over Newark Bay that would have exacerbated traffic in Manhattan, choosing a replacement for the 70-year-old span that will maintain four lanes in total.

It's the latest repudiation of former Gov. Phil Murphy's highway-expansion boondoggle — a process that Murphy himself started when he backed away from his $11-billion plan to add more lanes to the New Jersey Turnpike to spew more traffic into Manhattan. Sherrill's $6.7-billion proposal will bring the bridge to modern standards with “shoulders and improvements,” the governor's office said.

She added that the bridge project will “allow traffic to shift off the aging existing bridge by 2031.”

Now that the expansion project is off the table, Sherrill said she wants to fix approach routes to the Holland Tunnel, but "for safety improvements only — without expanding capacity,” she said in a statement.

Local politicians and advocates were pleased that Sherrill had gutted Murphy's folly.

“Today’s decision acknowledges that the previous proposal would’ve opened the floodgates of heavy traffic through communities that already bear a high burden of traffic and air pollution,” Mayors James Solomon of Jersey City and Ras Baraka of Newark said in a joint statement that hailed Sherrill for showing “true, community-led leadership.”

Stop Murphy's Turnpike Trap, a coalition of advocacy groups opposing the widening of the NJ Turnpike Extension, called Sherrill’s announcement a “huge win for transportation and the environment.”

“EmpowerNJ and the Turnpike Trap Coalition could not be more pleased,” said the statement. “This is great news for New Jersey, Hudson County, and the environment.”

The bridge widening would have created more traffic, meaning more pollution and climate change concerns. The Turnpike Authority forecasted that traffic would grow by nearly one-third by 2050. Turnpike officials estimated an increase of 32 percent, from 4,533 eastbound vehicles per hour in the peak morning rush measured in 2021 to nearly 6,000 by 2050, according to a draft environmental impact statement that covered the section of the bridge. Estimates found that traffic would still grow without the bridge widening, but only by 8 percent, to 4,909 vehicles.