Bayonne Bridge

As built, the Bayonne Bridge contained a roadbed 1,675 feet (511 m) long without intermediary piers.[6] The main span was connected to viaducts at either end.[3]^: 9, 12 The Port Richmond viaduct was 2,010 feet (610 m) long and the Bayonne viaduct was 3,010 feet (920 m) long, supported by piers that ranged from 20 to 110 feet (6.1 to 33.5 m) tall.[3]^: 12 The bridge originally featured a mid-span clearance above the water of 151 feet (46 m) in order to make room for the United States Navy's tallest ships at the time.[3]^: 9[4] The roadway was 85 feet (26 m) wide.[7]

Between 2013 and 2019, the bridge's clearance was raised approximately 64 feet (20 m), from 151 to 215 feet (46 to 66 m). A new roadway was constructed above the existing roadway within the current arch structure. This new clearance was to accommodate Post-Panamax ships.[8][9]

The Bayonne Bridge's arch resembles a parabola, but is made up of 40 linear segments. The lower chord of the arch rises 266 feet (81 m) above the Kill Van Kull,[10] while the upper chord is 325 feet (99 m) above the waterway.[11][9] The design of the steel arch is influenced by the Hell Gate Bridge, also in New York City, designed by Ammann's mentor Gustav Lindenthal.[12] Gilbert had designed an ornamental granite sheathing over the steelwork as part of the original proposal, but as in the case of the George Washington Bridge, the stone sheathing was eliminated in order to lower the cost of the bridge due to material shortages during the Great Depression, leaving the steel trusses exposed on both bridges.[5][7] It was the first bridge to employ manganese steel for the main arch ribs and rivets.[13]

When completed in 1931, the Bayonne Bridge was the longest through arch bridge in the world.[14][15][16] The Bayonne Bridge surpassed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, its more massive-arched "sister bridge" in Australia, by 25 feet (7.6 m)[7][13] and took the distinction from the Hell Gate Bridge.[3]^: 19 The Bayonne Bridge has a lightweight design, weighing only 16,000 short tons (15,000 t), compared to the Sydney Harbour Bridge's 37,000 short tons (34,000 t). The Bayonne Bridge is also half as wide and 117 feet (36 m) shorter than its sister bridge.[7]

The original deck of the Bayonne Bridge

In 1921, the Port of New York Authority (now the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey) was created to oversee transportation in the Port of New York and New Jersey.[3]^: 4 At the time, bridges in New York City were being built at a brisk pace.[7] The Port Authority opened its first two bridges between New Jersey and Staten Island in 1928: the Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing. A third crossing was being planned between Port Richmond and Bayonne. All three bridges were built to complement the traffic from a future fourth bridge or a tunnel from Staten Island to Brooklyn.[3]^: 8 Initially, the third crossing was proposed to be a tunnel.[17] However, the Port Authority ultimately decided to construct a bridge, to be designed by Ammann and Gilbert. Ammann, who was chief architect of the Port Authority, chose the steel arch design after rejecting a cantilever and suspension design as expensive and impractical for the site, given a requirement by the Port Authority that the bridge must be able to accommodate the future addition of rapid transit tracks.[3]^: 9[5][4]

Construction on the bridge began in 1928.[18] At the time, it was supposed to be open in early 1932 and was supposed to cost $16 million (equivalent to $252,000,000 in 2021),[7][14] but it ended up costing only $13 million to build (equivalent to $205,000,000 in 2021).[3]^: 13[19] The bridge had to be built without blocking shipping traffic on the Kill Van Kull. To do this, engineers used hydraulic jacks to support the two sides of the arch while the two pieces, consisting of prefabricated truss segments that were made up of high-strength alloy steel, were being built toward a point in a middle. Afterward, prefabricated pieces of the roadway's support structure were hung from cables connected to the arch.[3]^: 13

The bridge with its original deck, seen from the North Shore Branch embankment at Nicholas Avenue

The Bayonne Bridge opened on November 15, 1931, after dedication ceremonies were held the previous day.[3]^: 16[20] On opening day, about 7,000 pedestrians and 17,000 vehicles crossed the bridge.[3]^: 16 The new crossing was expected to reduce Staten Islanders' average commutes by an average of 18 to 20 minutes, reducing the need to use the Goethals Bridge or Outerbridge Crossing.[14] The Bayonne Bridge's dedication ceremony was attended by David M. Dow, the Secretary for Australia in the United States, and the same pair of golden shears used to cut the ribbon was sent to Australia for the ribbon-cutting of the Sydney Harbour Bridge four months later.[3]^: 19 After the ceremony in Sydney, the scissor blades were separated and one was sent back to the Port Authority.[13][20] Time referred to the symmetric detail of the bridge as "impressive and haunting," while the commune of Bayonne in France sent a congratulatory telegram.[7] The American Institute for Steel Construction selected the Bayonne Bridge as the "Most Beautiful Steel Bridge" in 1931, choosing it over the George Washington Bridge for that status.[3]^: 9, 16

Between 1939 and 1942, during World War II, the space under the Bayonne Bridge's Staten Island approach became the Archer Daniels Midland Manhattan Project Storage Site, utilized for storing uranium. The material was used in the nuclear weapons developed during the Manhattan Project, and about 2,007 barrels weighing 1,207 short tons (1,078 long tons; 1,095 t) were stored under the bridge. Due to the long half-life and high radioactivity of unrefined uranium ore, the site became highly polluted and was later designated a federal Superfund site.[21]

In 1951, twenty years after the bridge opened, the New Jersey tollbooth was re-landscaped by the Port Authority and the City of Bayonne, and in 1956, some land under the New Jersey approach viaduct was set aside to create the Juliette Street Playground.[3]^: 19 The Bergen Point Ferry, which paralleled the bridge, stayed in service until 1961.[22]^: 174[4] A new toll plaza in Staten Island was created in 1964 and made into one-way operation in 1970, with tolls only being collected for vehicles entering the island.[3]^: 19 The bridge became a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1985.[23][24]

The bridge with its original deck, seen at sunset

In the 2000s, the Port Authority started planning on a project to allow larger container ships to use the Kill Van Kull.[25] The expansion of the Panama Canal allowed large ships coming from Asia to reach the East Coast, but the bridge was too low for these larger ships to pass under it on the way to and from Newark Bay.[26] Its clearance of between 151 to 156 feet (46–48 m) above the Kill Van Kull depending on the tide already meant that some contemporary ships, which could reach 175 feet (53 m) above the waterline, had to fold down antenna masts, take on ballast, or wait for low tide to pass through.[25]

New, larger New Panamax ships made things worse. If the problem were not fixed, the Port of New York and New Jersey could have lost significant shipping business to other ports such as Charleston, South Carolina.[26] In August 2009, the Port Authority started a planning analysis to determine how to fix the air draft problem.[27] Final construction in the raise the road project was completed in May 2019 with the opening of the new higher pedestrian and bicycle path.[28]

The Port Authority commissioned the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CoE) to conduct a study of the question, which was 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.[29] The CoE study looked at three options for the bridge, besides the no-build option.[30]^{: PDF p. 4} The quickest option they identified, and the one ultimately chosen, was a $1.7 billion project to raise the bridge's roadway to increase its height by 40 percent, which could be accomplished by 2019 at the earliest. It would need a clearance of 215 feet (66 m) to handle the new ships. Another option presented was to build a new cable-stayed bridge, which would have cost $2.15 billion and taken until 2022.[30]^{: 33, 35–36} The most expensive option would be to get rid of the bridge altogether and replace it with either a bored tunnel or an immersed tunnel through which traffic would traverse under the Kill Van Kull. This option would have taken the longest, being complete in 2024 and costing $2.2 to $3 billion.[30]^: 34–36 In initial planning documents, a vertical-lift bridge was also considered, but this was not investigated further in the CoE study.[8]

Another study, an environmental review by the U.S. Coast Guard, was commissioned in 2009.[31][32] The review was required because the project would take place over a navigable waterway. The study cost over $2 million, took four years, and resulted in 5,000 pages of reviews. Despite its duration and cost, which precluded the start of construction until 2013, it was one of the Coast Guard's quickest environmental reviews for such a major project.[33] In March 2012, the Port Authority submitted a request to the federal government for an expedited environmental review process,[34][35] which was approved in July 2012[36] even though some residents in Newark and Staten Island said they wanted the Coast Guard to conduct a full environmental review.[37]

New section in Bayonne

New section in Port Richmond

According to the Port Authority, the "Raise the Roadway" project will have many benefits, the first being that it would allow larger, more environmentally friendly ships to pass through the port.[38] As a result of the project, the proportion of the arc above the roadway would be reduced, with only 22 cables suspending the new roadway below the arch as opposed to 30 cables holding up the old roadway.[7] As for the roadway itself, the single roadway would be replaced by two new roadway decks with new supporting piers and approach roads. Route 440 would be widened from one 40-foot (12 m) roadway with no shoulders and four 10-foot (3.0 m) lanes, to two 30-foot-9-inch (9.37 m) roadways with two 12-foot (3.7 m) lanes each, a median divider, and 4-foot-9-inch (1.45 m) shoulders.[39] There would also be a bikeway and walkway the entire length of the bridge, with access ramps to replace stairs.[38] The design also allows for future transit service such as light rail.[40] Extending the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line to Staten Island over the bridge has been proposed,[41] though final design plans do not include a rapid transit component.[42] Finally, the project would support nearly 2,800 jobs[38] and $240–380 million in wages throughout the construction industry,[7] as well as $1.6 billion of economic activity.[43]

The CoE estimated that raising the Bayonne Bridge would produce a $3.3 billion national benefit, noting that 12% of all US international containers pass under the bridge, that the port indirectly creates 269,900 jobs, and that port activity generates $11 billion in annual national wages.[43] The project would allow 12,000-container ships to pass under the bridge, increasing capacity; before the project, the largest ships allowed to pass under the bridge were 9,000-container ships.[33] Congressmen from both New York and New Jersey pressed the Port Authority to act quickly,[26][44] despite lowered revenues from reduced traffic at the Port Authority's six crossings.[45] The Port Authority announced its official plan in 2011.[19] The Coast Guard held two public meetings about the bridge in 2012.[46] Improvements at Port Jersey on the Upper New York Bay were also underway.[43]

Late 2016 state, with both old deck and new

The Port Authority believed that it was 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 the middle of 2013, to be completed by 2017.[47] In this timeline, removal of the existing roadway would be completed by late 2015, in time for the opening of the widened Panama Canal.[48] The project would cost $1.7 billion and last five years.[25]

In October 2017, old deck partially removed

One of the challenges faced by the project was the tight confines of the construction area: residential homes lay less than 20 ft (6.1 m) from the work site,[25] though none of them were in the path of the construction itself.[33] In 2014, Staten Islanders living near the Port Richmond work site filed a lawsuit, alleging that the construction work violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by exposing predominately-minority communities in Port Richmond to toxins.[49] In 2015, some Bayonne residents lodged complaints due to excessive noise, vibrations, dust over their neighborhood, and construction debris falling off the bridge (such as paint chips),[50] though the Port Authority later settled those complaints.[7] The project would also necessitate the temporary closure of a park in Bayonne.[43] Additionally, the Bayonne Bridge would remain open to vehicle traffic throughout the construction.[25][51]

On April 24, 2013, the Port Authority's Board of Commissioners awarded a $743.3 million contract to a joint venture of Skanska Koch and Kiewit Infrastructure Company.[43][52] The construction involved building support columns first, then adding prefabricated road segments using a gantry crane that rolled on top of the arch.[39] The gantry crane 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 was replaced. The existing roadway would then be removed.[51] Temporary bridge closures allowed new floor beams to be attached to the arch's ropes in order to support steel stringers that would hold up the new roadway.[39] This work was expedited by Barack Obama's presidential administration due to the importance of the project to national commerce, being one of the first applicants to Obama's "We Can't Wait" initiative of important infrastructure projects.[43][7] New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also considered the project a high priority for his state.[53]

The pedestrian walkway, cantilevered from the western side of the roadway, was temporarily closed on August 5, 2013, for reconstruction.[54] It was to be moved to the eastern side of the bridge. The walkway was scheduled to reopen in 2017.[55] In 2015, the completion date was delayed to 2019,[47] due to unfavorable weather conditions in the winter of 2014–2015.[53] This also delayed the desired navigational clearance to late 2017. The delays in the project meant that, with the expansion of the Panama Canal being completed in mid-2016, larger ships would not be able to serve Newark, thus possibly negatively affecting traffic to other ports on the United States' East Coast.[56] The Port Authority revised its timeline, expecting traffic to be shifted to the new roadway in early 2017, the old roadway to be removed by late 2017, and the project to be completed in mid-2019 with the completion of the roadway for southbound traffic.[51] In November 2016, the future northbound span, intended temporarily for both directions of travel, was completed.[57][58]

A New-Panamax ship, the CMA CGM Theodore Roosevelt, about to transit under the heightened Bayonne Bridge in September 2017

On February 20, 2017, the completed eastern (future northbound) roadway opened for traffic, with one lane in each direction, and the old lower roadway was permanently closed. The western (future southbound) roadway was scheduled to be completed in 2019, at which time there would be two lanes in each direction and a pedestrian walkway. Also on February 20, the Bayonne Bridge became the first Port Authority crossing to use a fully automated and cashless electronic toll collection system. All vehicles proceed without stopping at the toll plaza. Those with E-ZPass are billed in the usual way, while cameras record the license plate numbers of those without an E-ZPass tag and their registered owners soon receive a toll bill by mail.[51][59][60][61] The desired navigational clearance was achieved June 8, 2017.[62] Two years after the opening of the northbound roadway, on February 11, 2019, the new southbound roadway was completed, and the traffic flow of the bridge was restored to two lanes in each direction.[63][64] The pedestrian and bike path opened May 24, 2019.[28][65] The overall project received the 2020 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement award from the American Society of Civil Engineers, citing the "first-of-its-kind construction sequence, ... keeping both road and sea traffic open."[66]

• Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (1995). The Encyclopedia of New York City. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300055366.