NJ Transit Replacing Raritan River Bridge On North Jersey Coast

SOUTH AMBOY, NJ — If you ride the North Jersey Coast Line this fall and winter, look out the window to the west: That crane you see with the American flag on top is the very beginning stages of a massive construction project NJ Transit is undertaking to replace the Raritan River drawbridge.

NJ Transit has been talking about replacing the bridge for years, and construction finally started this week. Gov. Phil Murphy and Transit officials held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday morning from the South Amboy side of the railroad tracks.

The new bridge will be a lift bridge, meaning it will lift up and down so boats can go under it (the current bridge is a swing bridge).

It's a project that will take six years to complete. The existing bridge will remain fully functional during that time and North Jersey Coast Line riders should not experience any service delays while the new bridge is being built.

Once the new bridge is completed, the old bridge will be demolished, although an NJ Transit spokesman said he could not say whether it will be blown up.

The Raritan bridge spans the mouth of the Raritan River where it empties out into Raritan Bay. The bridge was built in 1908, and carries the North Jersey Coast Line rail tracks over the bay, as it has done for the past 112 years. However, in addition to its old age, the bridge was badly damaged in Hurricane Sandy in 2012: Its railroad ties buckled when Atlantic Ocean seawater flooded the tracks, and saltwater eroded the supports that hold the bridge up.

In fact, ever since Sandy, North Jersey Coast line trains have had to go very slowly over the bridge for that very reason.

The new Raritan River bridge will be located just west to the current bridge, further into the river and protected from the sea. It will also sit higher above the water. Trains can also go faster on it once it is completed.

The entire cost of the bridge replacement project is estimated to be $595 million, and $446 million of that is paid for using a Federal Transit Administration grant. The bridge replacement is part of five capital improvement projects NJ Transit is undertaking to improve service.

All the money to make repairs like this — such as bridge and tunnel repairs — comes out of NJ Transit's capital budget, meaning riders should not expect fares to go up to pay for funding of the new bridge.

Gov. Murphy, speaking in South Amboy Tuesday, said the bridge replacement project will "recapture our state’s mantle as the economic corridor to the nation and provide 5,700 good-paying jobs.”

"The new bridge will be able to weather storms better and require less maintenance, meaning more reliable service for the customers that take the North Jersey Coast Line between the Jersey Shore and Manhattan," said NJ's Department of Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti.

“This 112 year-old bridge is an essential rail link for communities all along the North Jersey Coast Line, carrying approximately 11,000 daily customers and connecting them to major job centers in Newark, Jersey City and Manhattan,’’ said NJ Transit CEO Kevin Corbett.

Learn more here: https://njtransitresiliencepro...