Crossing the George Washington Bridge will be more complicated, at least until the fall of 2026, especially on the side of New Jersey. The Port Authority closed the right lanes and the sidewalk of the Center Avenue overpass northward, at Fort Lee, on one of the roads leading to the bridge. The work proceeds by phases, with two lanes that will remain open, but at that point the local traffic mixes with the one directed towards the I-95 and to the upper level of the bridge. For this reason an apparently limited reduction can create queues on Bruce Reynolds Boulevard, Lemoine Avenue and Bridge Plaza North.
The yard is part of “Restoring the George”, the great extraordinary maintenance program with which the Port Authority is renewing the George Washington Bridge in view of its hundred years, which will fall in 2031. The bridge was opened to traffic in 1931 and today it has a very different role to play: it connects Fort Lee to Washington Heights, it is one of the main road accesses in Manhattan and every year it holds tens of millions of crossings towards New York. Intervention on such a structure means working without being able to stop it, because a complete closure would shift the problem on the whole system of bridges and tunnels between New Jersey and New York.
The programme includes eleven separate interventions. The most important, already arrived at a decisive step, involved the replacement of the 592 vertical ropes connecting the main cables to the road floor. Main cable operations, dehumidification systems have also been planned to slow down corrosion, pavement work, ramps and pedestrian and cycle access. The part of Center Avenue is less spectacular than the works suspended above the Hudson, but it weighs a lot on the daily life of those who use the bridge: it concerns an already narrow snout, where even a closed turn or a deviated ramp can change the time of travel in the peak hours.
Heavier closures around Center Avenue should last until September 2026. During this period some local turns and ramps will remain interdept or deviated, and the Port Authority updates the night closings and narrowings between the upper and lower level of the bridge, even according to the weather. For those who have to cross the George Washington Bridge, the most useful thing is to check the alerts before leaving, especially on weekdays and in return hours. The yard will not end with a single day in which everything will return normal: some local restrictions should lighten in autumn, while the general requalification program will continue for stages.
L’articolo The endless yard of the George Washington Bridge proviene da IlNewyorkese.
