Murphy scraps controversial Turnpike widening through Hudson County

Gov. Phil Murphy announced Friday that the most controversial part of a $10.6 billion plan to widen the New Jersey Turnpike extension from Bayonne to Jersey City has been scrapped.

The original $10.6 billion plan will be updated to remove new travel lanes east of the 14A interchange and add a direct link between the turnpike expansion and port facilities in Bayonne and Jersey City, Murphy and state Transportation Commissioner Fran O’Connor said in a joint statement.

No changes will be made to the first phase of the plan, a $6.2 billion project to build twin cable-stayed bridges that will replace a 69-year-old span that carries the Turnpike over Newark Bay.

This project includes the replacement of 14 other bridges between Exit 14 in Newark and Exit 14A in Bayonne. Construction of this project could begin in spring 2026. Each bridge will be four lanes wide. Murphy and O’Connor said the revisions announced today will not affect this project in any way.

The original proposal called for the addition of one lane of traffic in each direction between interchanges 14A and 14C. These lanes will no longer be built, they said.

An estimated $500 million in savings from removing the widening between exits 14A and 14C will be used to build new ramps connecting the 14A interchange to the ports of Bayonne. This work, referred to as Project 2A, will reduce the mixing of truck traffic to and from the port with local traffic in the interchange.

“The new ramps will give trucks direct access to port facilities and keep them away from the 14A interchange,” Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis said in a statement. “This means that passenger vehicles using the interchange to enter and exit Bayonne and Jersey City will no longer conflict with these large trucks.”

“This will reduce traffic congestion and provide a less stressful journey for people traveling through the interchange,” he said.

The remaining $4 billion will be used for other Turnpike Authority infrastructure projects in Hudson and Essex counties, including the Western Spur, the Harry Laderman Bridge and the Bayview Avenue Bridge at the 14B interchange.

“The Turnpike Authority will be able to distribute savings from Project 2A and other critical infrastructure improvements across the region,” said James Carone, executive director of the Turnpike Authority.

This widening was opposed by officials in Newark, Jersey City, Hoboken and several groups based in those cities because of the effect of traffic and pollution on surrounding neighborhoods. Bayonne Mayor Davis supported the project.

An environmental impact study released in 2023 concluded that the project would have little or no negative impact on adjacent neighborhoods, air quality, noise or traffic. But opponents questioned the accuracy of pre-COVID-19 traffic data used in the project’s environmental studies and called for new environmental, traffic and cost studies in 2025.

The Turnpike Extension is one of two major roads and bridges that connect to the Holland Tunnel.

Opponents from EmpowerNJ and the Turnpike Trap Coalition disagreed on the width and necessity of the two new bridges.

“The NJTA should repair or replace the existing bridge without expanding it,” the groups said in a statement. “While the outgoing governor rightly decided not to expand the turnpike east of Exit 14-A, the plan to expand and double the capacity of the Newark Bay Bridge now makes even less sense.”

Their concern is that four lanes of traffic from the new bridge would merge onto two highway lanes, forcing traffic through neighborhoods.

“Increased traffic on the expanded bridge will cause even more cars to cross local Jersey City streets to reach the Holland Tunnel, thereby worsening Jersey City’s already poor traffic and air travel,” the groups said.

Hudson County elected officials thanked O’Connor and Murphy for listening to voters.

“Between concerns about induced demand, climate impact and traffic impacts on the Jersey City and Hoboken communities, I have long opposed the Turnpike expansion as previously proposed,” said State Sen. Raj Mukherji, D-Hudson, who is also vice chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. “I am deeply grateful to the governor and commissioner for keeping an open mind,”

“The reconfiguration of the plan to abandon the widening beyond the Bayonne exit is a welcome change,” he said.

State Sen. Angela McKnight, D-Hudson, called it a good compromise.

“These changes strengthen our infrastructure while keeping the well-being of the community at the forefront and providing significant savings,” she said. “Streamlining the flow of trucks and local traffic at Interchange 14A with these new ramps will reduce congestion, improve driver safety and make port operations more efficient. »

Union leaders also welcomed the announcement because it improves the plan and uses the savings for other infrastructure projects.

However, opponents fear that bottlenecks between the four-lane bridge and the two-lane extension could eventually spark demands to extend the toll road east of Bayonne.

“This is a publicity stunt, not a compromise, that was announced without any input from the community or opponents of the project,” EmpowerNJ and the Turnpike Trap Coalition said. No work was going to be done east of 14A for years. “Nothing prevents the Turnpike Authority from changing its mind when there are requests to extend the turnpike east of 14A due to increased traffic on the bridges.”

The project was first proposed in the Turnpike Authority’s 2020 capital plan.

Supporters have argued that 80 percent of the expansion is on elevated structures from the 1950s and are nearing the end of their service life.

In 2017, the Newark Bay Bridge was closed for 36 hours for emergency repairs after the eastbound bridge deck dropped several inches because the bearings that supported the deck shifted.

In May 2025, the US Coast Guard published a finding of no significant impact for the project.

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