Pulaski Skyway to close to NY Bound traffic for two years starting in 2014

[CrystalWalrein]

You ever notice that whenever the news harps on about an impending closure that would strangle traffic under sudden circumstances, traffic doesn't seem to be affected? People are finding other ways around it. NJT ridership might just see an uptick for a while, but I hardly believe that you'll end up seeing all the roads choked with the trade-off to I-78 and side streets. Remember Los Angeles and Atlanta?

[Alps]

You ever notice that whenever the news harps on about an impending closure that would strangle traffic under sudden circumstances, traffic doesn't seem to be affected? People are finding other ways around it. NJT ridership might just see an uptick for a while, but I hardly believe that you'll end up seeing all the roads choked with the trade-off to I-78 and side streets. Remember Los Angeles and Atlanta?

a) Media publicity goes a long way toward people pre-selecting alternate routes to help cushion the burden. If the news DOESN'T harp about the closure, then you run into problems. It's an intentional strategy.
b) A lane was added to the worst part of I-78 across Newark Bay and a whole host of signals were retimed (I-78 at NJ 139, the US 1&9 Truck corridor in general) to try to favor the diverted traffic as much as possible.
c) The closure was intentionally implemented on an "off" week - Easter/Passover and schools' spring break. That gave the remaining lighter traffic a full week to adjust, before the "off" traffic came back and adjusted. Two-stage adjustment runs a lot smoother than hitting everyone at once.

Feel free to ask me more questions, this is my wheelhouse.

[hbelkins]

a) Media publicity goes a long way toward people pre-selecting alternate routes to help cushion the burden. If the news DOESN'T harp about the closure, then you run into problems. It's an intentional strategy.

It helps if you have a media that likes to sensationalize stuff. Part of my job is trying to publicize road closures. We don't have anything approaching the level of the Skyway, or anything that carries anything near the traffic in that area (heaviest-traveled road in my area is 32K VPD) but the most important road in the world to any one person is the road they live on or use every day. If the press fails to publicize a preplanned closure for something like a drainage pipe replacement, people get upset if they didn't know about the closure so they could plan for a longer trip into town.

[SignBridge]

Reminds me of an interesting story from NYC, 50 years ago when I was a kid. Grand Central Pkwy. in Queens was undergoing a major widening/modernization/reconstruction. Without telling the public it was going to happen, on a Monday Morning DOT closed the westbound lanes at the 168th St. exit diverting all traffic to the parallel service road with traffic lights, to enable construction thru the open cut from 168 St. to Union Tpke. about a mile-and- a-half. The ensuing fiasco caused the news media to go nuts. The newspapers noted that every city agency had been informed, but not the public. A hard lesson was learned by NYC government and NYS DOT that week in 1963 I think it was.

[jeffandnicole]

Today was expected to be the first really, really big test of the closure, as most schools are now reopen after Easter, people are returning from vacations, etc.  The worst condition that was reported was a mis-timed traffic light on 1-9 Truck.  And it affected people getting onto 1-9T West more than it affected the detoured traffic. 

But otherwise, traffic appears to have moved relatively smoothly...with the understanding that smooth traffic is generally expected to include a certain amount of congestion anyway.

[jeffandnicole]

http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/about/press/2015/032415.shtm

Full Skyway closures coming up during several weekends this spring.

[cpzilliacus]

Has there been any regional-scale analysis of how the transportation network is doing in North Jersey without the northbound lanes of the Skyway?

Perhaps especially including Turnpike Exits 14?

[Duke87]

http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/about/press/2015/032415.shtm

Full Skyway closures coming up during several weekends this spring.

Okay, so this weekend is obviously the first, but what are the other seven? Is it simply the next eight weekends, i.e every weekend until May 16/17?

[Pete from Boston]

Eight weekends is probably all but one of the next eight weekends, since the next would be Memorial Day, which brings confused out-of-towners.

[Duke87]

Eight weekends is probably all but one of the next eight weekends, since the next would be Memorial Day, which brings confused out-of-towners.

3/28, 4/4, 4/11, 4/18. 4/25, 5/2, 5/9, and 5/16 make eight weekends, with the following weekend after being Memorial Day. I am assuming that is what's happening but it would be nice if they explicitly stated so in advance.

More to the point, I have an event in New Jersey on one of those eight weekends, and if the Skyway is closed then that will cost me extra in tolls.

[Pete from Boston]

Eight weekends is probably all but one of the next eight weekends, since the next would be Memorial Day, which brings confused out-of-towners.

3/28, 4/4, 4/11, 4/18. 4/25, 5/2, 5/9, and 5/16 make eight weekends, with the following weekend after being Memorial Day. I am assuming that is what's happening but it would be nice if they explicitly stated so in advance.

More to the point, I have an event in New Jersey on one of those eight weekends, and if the Skyway is closed then that will cost me extra in tolls.

Sorry, my quick glance at the calendar failed to notice that the Monday after the last weekend in May is June 1.

[02 Park Ave]

3rd May is Mother's Day.  That is one of the busiest travel days of the year on the Turnpike.

[cpzilliacus]

NorthJersey.com: Pulaski Skyway found to be more deteriorated, adding to repair cost and time

The Pulaski Skyway is even more deteriorated than state inspectors originally realized. That, plus an exceptionally cold winter, will add to the cost of rehabbing the bridge and will delay completion of the project, state Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox said Thursday.

The delays and cost overruns appear to be modest, Fox said, especially given the size and complexity of the project. The original plan, to replace 4.25 miles worth of roadway along the Pulaski Skyway and Route 139, was to cost $1.8 billion and last two years. Weather-related delays, plus replacing steel beams below the bridge deck that were in much worse shape than expected, will cost an extra $14 million and delay the project, Fox said.

Construction began a year ago, and was expected to be finished by April 2016. A new completion date has not been determined yet.

"We're still planning to be done in 2016, but later,"  Fox said.

[Alps]

NorthJersey.com: Pulaski Skyway found to be more deteriorated, adding to repair cost and time

The Pulaski Skyway is even more deteriorated than state inspectors originally realized. That, plus an exceptionally cold winter, will add to the cost of rehabbing the bridge and will delay completion of the project, state Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox said Thursday.

The delays and cost overruns appear to be modest, Fox said, especially given the size and complexity of the project. The original plan, to replace 4.25 miles worth of roadway along the Pulaski Skyway and Route 139, was to cost $1.8 billion and last two years. Weather-related delays, plus replacing steel beams below the bridge deck that were in much worse shape than expected, will cost an extra $14 million and delay the project, Fox said.

Construction began a year ago, and was expected to be finished by April 2016. A new completion date has not been determined yet.

"We're still planning to be done in 2016, but later,"  Fox said.

Honestly, 2017 would be a pretty good result based on what I've heard from various civil engineering industry sources. 2016 may be overly optimistic. If the overrun is 8 digits or less, it might qualify as a minor miracle.

[Pete from Boston]

$14 million in a $1.6 billion project is a very reasonable overrun.  The question, of course, is how many more of them there are. 

In any case, I don't think anyone should be surprised. 

[D-Dey65]

I'm almost starting to wonder if it's time to have that bridge replaced. What really hurts is that the thing is on the National Register of Historic Places, and a New Jersey Registered Historic Place, and it's in that sorry a condition.

[Roadgeek Adam]

I'm almost starting to wonder if it's time to have that bridge replaced. What really hurts is that the thing is on the National Register of Historic Places, and a New Jersey Registered Historic Place, and it's in that sorry a condition.

Too expensive, plus environmentalists, I would never see that happening.

[jeffandnicole]

A bigger question would be where do you put a new bridge? It's not like it's surrounded by grass and trees where they could build a parallel span.  And it was a huge issue just to shut down one direction of the bridge for the current project. If you replace the entire bridge in its current location, you would need to detour both directions of traffic for no less than 5 or 6 years in an area that really has no place to detour such a large amount of traffic.

[Pete from Boston]

A bigger question would be where do you put a new bridge? It's not like it's surrounded by grass and trees where they could build a parallel span.  And it was a huge issue just to shut down one direction of the bridge for the current project. If you replace the entire bridge in its current location, you would need to detour both directions of traffic for no less than 5 or 6 years in an area that really has no place to detour such a large amount of traffic.

South Kearny's not exactly NIMBYville.  Nobody not at that one motel even lives there.  You could get a new alignment through there.

[jeffandnicole]

Yeah, good luck with that.  There are businesses and properties that would cost quite a lot to buy up.  And good luck coming up with the $5 billion or more to build a new bridge.

[Pete from Boston]

I think a state buyout would be the best offer some of these places will ever get.  Nonetheless, it's irrelevant because it's not going to happen, but a big problem would end up being the same reason so much of that land is derelict to begin with–every shovelful of soil will need remediation. 

[SteveG1988]

There is a "new" Skyway already...honestly i consider the newark Bay Extension to be a secondary route for this, improve that road to take traffic off the existing skyway.

[Duke87]

There is a "new" Skyway already...honestly i consider the newark Bay Extension to be a secondary route for this, improve that road to take traffic off the existing skyway.

The Turnpike Extension isn't particularly in need of physical improvements. However so long as it is tolled and the Skyway is free, people will use the Skyway to shunpike. Only correcting this price imbalance will divert traffic off the Skyway.

[cpzilliacus]

There is a "new" Skyway already...honestly i consider the newark Bay Extension to be a secondary route for this, improve that road to take traffic off the existing skyway.

The Turnpike Extension isn't particularly in need of physical improvements. However so long as it is tolled and the Skyway is free, people will use the Skyway to shunpike. Only correcting this price imbalance will divert traffic off the Skyway.

Absolutely correct. 

In my fantasy world, the NJTA would get the Skyway (especially since there is already a bannered "free" truck alternate route in place for commercial vehicles), and encourage them to set tolls that would assure free-flow at all times.

I would wait until the NJDOT project is complete, then tell the Turnpike Authority to take good care of it, which I believe they would.

[SteveG1988]

There is a "new" Skyway already...honestly i consider the newark Bay Extension to be a secondary route for this, improve that road to take traffic off the existing skyway.

The Turnpike Extension isn't particularly in need of physical improvements. However so long as it is tolled and the Skyway is free, people will use the Skyway to shunpike. Only correcting this price imbalance will divert traffic off the Skyway.

Absolutely correct. 

In my fantasy world, the NJTA would get the Skyway (especially since there is already a bannered "free" truck alternate route in place for commercial vehicles), and encourage them to set tolls that would assure free-flow at all times.

I would wait until the NJDOT project is complete, then tell the Turnpike Authority to take good care of it, which I believe they would.

What i would have done is similar to what Florence NJ has, a discount for the Newark Bay Extension. Ezpass transponders registered in that area get a discount during the construction period for travel in the closed direction of the skyway.