Bayonne Bridge raising project ahead of schedule

The deck removal will provide navigational clearance for ultra-large post-Panamax ships to access port terminals in New York and New Jersey when the expanded Panama Canal opens for business.

Work will commence mid-2013 when crews begin to build a new elevated roadway 64 feet above the existing deck. Once completed, the Bayonne Bridge roadway will be 215 feet above the Kill Van Kull waterway, allowing larger cargo ships to easily pass beneath the structure. The port authority anticipates completing deck removal by the fall of 2015 rather than mid-2016 as called for in the original project timeline.

The Panama Canal Authority recently announced that construction delays will push completion of the canal project into 2015. In an interview with Panamanian TV station Telemetro, Alberto Alemán Zubieta, the administrator of the Panama Canal, noted that construction completion would be followed by up to eight months of testing and trials before the canal will be fully operational.