Special Report: New Jersey

Bridge Rebuild

The 76-Year-Old Goethals Extends its Lifespan

by Katherine S. Robertson

A $63.2 million rehabilitation project promises a much-needed structural upgrade for the weathered Goethals Bridge, a span that carries 31 million vehicles each year from New York to New Jersey over the swampy Arthur Kill.

KiSKA Construction Corp. of New York is leading the job to mill off the 2-in. asphalt surface, repair the concrete decking, replace all drain scuppers and joints, and rebuild the sidewalk. The scheduled completion date is December 2006, said Frank Gallo, program manager for the tunnels, bridges, and terminals unit of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

KiSKA won the contract in July 2003, facing a tight project window that requires accounting for the unexpected, like late deliveries, unfavorable weather, or equipment breakdowns. "Whatever happens, KiSKA has to address it in that timeframe," Gallo said.

Work got moving right away last year with crews constructing a platform under the bridge from which the contractors are conducting the repair work. Gallo said the project got into full swing this year.

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One of the big challenges for the project is juggling logistics, since the major commuter route has remained operational during the day. The project team has to get crews, materials, and equipment on the bridge as soon as it closes at 9.30 p.m., and has to button up the worksite by 5 a.m. so that regular traffic can resume. Project sequencing calls for closing down one side of the bridge at a time, with impacted traffic flow directed to other crossings.

Gallo said the job is the biggest fix-up the bridge has experienced. "We've rehabilitated the deck before, but this is the first time we went in and did the whole thing," Gallo said.

He said crews are milling the asphalt surface in 1,000-ft. sections, while patching the 9-in. concrete roadway beneath it as they go along. A typical patch is 4 to 5 in. deep and 2 to 3 in. in diameter. The team is also replacing expansion and deflection joints, and rehabilitating or replacing the steel network attached to those joints as needed.

Constructed in 1925 and opened in 1928, the 8,600-ft.-long, steel-truss, cantilevered bridge connects industrial sectors of New Jersey to Staten Island and greater New York City, and provides a strategic link between New York's major airports and marine ports. Its skeleton consists of steel girders set atop arched concrete piers sunk 50 ft. below the bottom of the channel. The piers reach a midspan height of 135 ft. above the waterline to support the decking.

But the bridge already lags behind modern design standards in various respects, including its 10-ft.-wide lanes that fall short of today's 12-ft.-wide norm. It has no shoulders for emergency access. The Goethals also doesn't have adequate capacity for its current traffic flow, which includes functioning as the main connector to the Howland Hook Marine Terminal, the region's military port of embarkation in the case of a national emergency.

To be sure, the current project isn't a cure for the corridor's traffic problems. The Port Authority had hoped to address that with a parallel $350 million viaduct across Arthur Kill. But that 1998 proposal has met community opposition, and while the players hash out which option may go forward, the work on the Goethals has become even more critical.

The agency has done other high-profile work on the bridge in recent years. In 2001, the Port Authority had spent close to $19 million painting the steel below the viaducts, a job that required the stripping down of 75 years' worth of earlier paint work to get to the steel. Gallo said the paint layers were very thick, sloughing off in layers. Another paint job to strip and recoat the steel trusses above and below the roadway had wrapped up the year before.

The purpose of the current deck repair job is to keep the bridge in good repair for another seven to 10 years without spending hundreds of millions on overhauling, rebuilding, or duplicating the crossing. That provides the Port Authority with time to conduct an environmental review, which it hopes will ultimately result in the recommendation of a preferred alternative.

Gallo said the possibilities run the gamut from a substantial rehabilitation - which would involve replacement of the steel and concrete decking, with costs in the range of $250 million - to construction of a full-scale replacement bridge. The previously proposed "twinning" concept - construction of a parallel bridge to share the traffic load - could also return to the table.

The environmental impact statement review, with the U.S. Coast Guard as lead federal agency, kicked off in May with a traffic count to provide a comprehensive picture of existing flow and to create a benchmark for future projects. Overall, the review will take roughly three years.