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An article detailing the transportation of three sections of the new Portal North Bridge down the Hudson River to their construction site in New Jersey. The $1.6 billion project aims to replace an aging bridge, improve transit efficiency, and ensure safety in the region.
Wed June 25, 2025 - Northeast Edition #14
Residents and businesspeople along the Hudson River in New York are used to seeing unusual sights traveling downriver from the Port of Albany toward New York City. However, even experienced river watchers gawked at the sight on Nov. 19, 2024, when a barge carried an enormous network of tied arch bridge weighing some 5 million lbs. downriver to its eventual destination as one of the three sections of the new Portal North Bridge for New Jersey Transit.
The two other sections of the new bridge were sent downriver on Jan. 15, 2025, and Feb. 14, 2025.
The new bridge will replace a structure that is 115 years old and carries 450 passenger trains per day, ferrying approximately 300,000 passengers into New York City from Newark, N.J. The current bridge uses a swing bridge to allow commercial vessels to pass through the navigation channel and occasionally it does not close properly, causing many delays to the already overburdened traffic leaving New York City.
The bridge carries both Amtrak and NJ Transit trains. The new bridge is a sparkling network tied arch bridge that will cross the Hackensack River and support the trains, concrete train bed and utilities. The work became necessary after Superstorm Sandy flooded tunnels and highlighted the need for rebuilding the transit system along the Northeast corridor.
The Skanska construction team and its engineers determined that the most efficient way to build the bridge was to assemble all three bridges on rented space at Port of Coeymans Marine Terminal in Ravena, N.Y.
NJ Transit photo
The park is owned by Carver Companies. Most people would scratch their heads at the thought that Albany has a port, but the Hudson River sweeps down from Albany with sufficient depth and width to support the transport of such immense burdens toward New York. River traffic continues to be the cheapest way to move large burdens like rock, grain, coal and construction products.
"Building the bridges upriver at a single location saved six months of work on each bridge," said Michelle Miyaki, superintendent of Skanska Koch. "Not only did it save time and money, but also building where we did was much safer than stick building the bridge in place over the river."
The theme of saving time, saving money and improving safety was a hallmark of this $1.6 billion project. The Skanska-Traylor JV team estimates the job to be 75 percent finished, with trains expected to roll on the new bridge in 2026. Once the new bridge is complete, the old bridge will be demolished and the concrete and steel recycled.
"The barges carrying the bridges passed under 18 bridges on the way to their new home," said Miyaki. "Seven of the bridges had to be opened and the last bridge we had to come through was the existing Portal Bridge. The low fiber optic cable created another final challenge for us as we passed under it with only two feet of clearance. Each of the Portal North Bridge sections bridge was 86 feet high and we had to wait for low tide to clear under the fiber optic cables at the current Portal Bridge."
When the bridges arrived, the Skanska team worked side by side with heavy lifting experts from Mammoet. This company has performed many bridge lifts around the world and is considered one of the best at this complicated task. Workers used four hydraulic towers (Mega Jack 800 System). The system has a capacity of 800 tons per tower.
"Our team was able to winch the barges into place and position ‘saddles' to grab the arches in four places," said Miyaki. "Once secured on the jacking barge, we then lifted the bridge in 3-foot increments as well as added a brace every 15 feet.
"We had to adjust for the tide while we ballasted and de ballasted the barges to make the lifts possible," added Miyaki.
The new bridges are 50 ft. above the water, while the old bridge was a mere 23 ft. above the river. Regular barge traffic from the Bergen County Waste Management passes under the new bridge with room to spare.
Workers will use metalized coatings on the bridge to protect it from corrosion for an expected 75 years. Epoxy coatings on the pier caps will protect the concrete from deterioration while waterproofing membranes on the track bed will keep water away from the structure and direct into the drains.
Moving the bridges downriver and lifting them into place has been the headline moment for the project. However, Skanska also had to navigate several complicated steps to bring the bridge supports and equipment across marshes and lagoons.
Skanska-Traylor photo
The bridge is 2.5 mi. long with the substructure column, rebar cages and pier cap cages built on the ground, then hoisted into place improving speed and safety.
"Our team built temporary trestles and causeways to provide improved access and mitigate logistical challenges for our workers and equipment to mobilize into position and safely perform the work," said Laszlo Borhi, Skanska project executive. "We used temporary trestles that were used on a project in Virginia. When this job is complete, we will transfer the trestles to the Livingston Bridge project in Albany."
The new Portal North Bridge will require 27 million lbs. of rebar and 44 million lbs. of steel. Skanska-Traylor was required to complete approximately 65 percent of the work in just 30 months to maintain the contract milestones.
The construction team gave special attention to safety, including daily safety walks, site-specific training, daily hazard analysis and review with crews.
Frank Corso, chief of construction management of NJ Transit, has worked closely with Skanska-Traylor.
"This project will make a big impact for the community," he said. "The job is to get people where they need to be as reliably, safely and affordably as possible. We have eliminated the need to open the bridge with this new fixed-span bridge. This will enable us to increase capacity and reliability for our customers. Skanska-Traylor has been accountable, adaptable and handled changes that have come up. They are on schedule and on budget." CEG
Chuck MacDonald is an editor, blogger and freelance feature writer whose writing adventures have taken him to 48 states and 10 countries. He has been the editor for magazines on pavement construction, chemicals, insurance and missions. Chuck enjoys bicycling, kayaking and reading. He graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism. Chuck lives in Annapolis, Md. with his wife Kristen. They have seven grandchildren.