The New Jersey Turnpike Authority will soon launch its search for a construction team to replace the 70-year-old Newark Bay Bridge—a project that new Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) scaled back significantly last month amid cost concerns and community pushback in its congested location, but is still a multibillion-dollar undertaking.
The agency will begin the process this summer to pre-qualify contractors for the estimated $6.7-billion toll-funded effort to build a single four-lane cable-stayed replacement for the Vincent R. Casciano Memorial Bridge, as part of its Newark Bay-Hudson County Extension Program, according to an authority spokesperson. Bid requests will follow later in the year.
According to comments last month by Kris Kolluri, authority executive director, the contract to build the cable-stayed bridge structure could be awarded within several months..
But early contracting already is underway. In March, the authority approved separate contracts to build timber deck trestles to support construction of the new bridge. PKF-Mark III will build a $74.1-million, 177,000-sq-ft trestle in Bayonne, while George Harms Construction Co. will build a $38.3-million, 106,000-sq-ft structure in Newark.
Also, the Newark Bay Corridor Joint Venture, made up of Jacobs and STV Inc., was awarded a $141.3-million construction management contract for the replacement project.
Citing input from mayors, community leaders and organized labor, Sherrill scrapped the original controversial $10.7-billion twin-span replacement proposal advanced in 2020 by her predecessor, Phil Murphy (D). That plan would have doubled the crossing’s capacity and added new lanes to the 8.1-mile highway corridor between Newark and the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City that connects to Manhattan.
Instead, the authority says building a single new bridge and limiting roadway work to safety improvements will maintain the corridor’s existing capacity while allowing traffic to be moved off the existing structure by 2031. The spokesperson adds that the agency is committed to Sherrill’s recommendation to require project labor agreements on the program “to guarantee that the work meets the utmost standards of safety and quality with a highly skilled and diverse union workforce.”
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Pared Down, Moving Forward
The authority did not say how the revised project will affect its existing contracts with Parsons Transportation Group to design the new bridge, and with Michael Baker International and Gannett Fleming for road and bridge improvements, although the agency said last month that it won’t change the already approved final bridge design.
The move to pare down the overall corridor upgrade follows the authority’s December 2025 announcement that it would preserve the extension’s existing two-lane configuration through Jersey City, saving about $500 million in program costs. Instead, the agency said it will build direct connections to port facilities in Bayonne and Jersey City, improving the flow of both truck and local traffic through the area.
In a joint statement, Mayors James Solomon and Ras Baraka of Jersey City and Newark, respectively, said the decision to scale back the extension program even further “acknowledges that the previous proposal would have opened the floodgates of heavy traffic through communities that already bear a high burden of traffic and air pollution.”
In a statement, NJ Utility and Transportation Contractors Association CEO David Rible said the program «will ultimately create more efficient, modern and safer infrastructure,» but Samantha Roman, president of Associated Builders and Contractors-NJ, voiced opposition to the project labor agreement mandate, which she said would add to costs and exclude many local women and minority-owned firms that are non-union.
