NJ Transit expects Portal Bridge service back Nov. 15 after 5 weeks of detours

A 2019 analysis found 18 major failures and about 1,000 delays on the span

New Jersey Transit commuters have spent five weeks detouring through Hoboken, catching buses and ferries and squeezing onto packed trains while the agency replaces the 116-year-old Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River. Regular service between Newark and Manhattan’s Penn Station is scheduled to return Nov. 15, and NJ Transit said it expects to finish on time, barring unforeseen issues with safety testing or a weather event.

The new span, which will sit 50 feet above the Hackensack, cost about $2.3 billion. Transit officials agreed the aging bridge — about 8 miles from New York City at a critical juncture along the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor — had to be replaced. To accommodate the work, NJ Transit sharply reduced rail service between Newark and Penn Station, rerouting many commuters who once had a straight shot into Midtown through Hoboken, where they catch a bus, ferry or an additional train into the city.

NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri, speaking in October as the final phase of construction began, promised commuters the trade-off would be durability. “You give us these five weeks, this bridge will not be a problem for the next 100 years,” he said.

For many riders, the five weeks have strained patience. Diane Harrison, a 51-year-old chief talent officer from Montclair, N.J., said her commute grew by 45 minutes. “It’s been deplorable,” she said. “The experience has been terrible.”

Peter Broughton, a 49-year-old architect from South Orange, N.J., started a new job in Midtown the same week the work began. His typical route runs straight to Penn Station; instead, his first days on the job meant crowds and detours. “Everybody and their brother is all funneling through Hoboken along with me,” he said of his first few days. “And I knew I was in for trouble.”

Then came a Thursday that tested that patience. Arriving at a Manhattan station after a long week, Broughton found he could not get home through Hoboken and had to route through another New Jersey station instead — a train to one Newark station, a shuttle bus to another, then a final train home. The trip took about two hours. A friend coming from Manhattan’s Upper East Side opted for a $280 Uber. “I don’t want to say ‘nightmare,’ because it wasn’t the end of the world,” Broughton said. “But I had to cobble it together.” NJ Transit said that ordeal was the fault of a different century-old span, the 123-year-old Newark Drawbridge, which failed to fully close after opening for marine traffic.

Marjorie Cardichon, a 51-year-old security worker in Midtown Manhattan, said her typical hourlong commute has doubled during the construction. The East Orange, N.J., resident’s trip already includes a New York City subway ride and a walk to her office; the diversion to Hoboken added another step. “It’s exhausting to even explain it,” she said.

Anticipating the disruption, NJ Transit asked anyone who could to consider staying home. Some commuters said they managed to spend fewer days in the office. Others described rush-hour trains crammed with sweaty passengers; one said the trains are sometimes so packed he cannot get on at all. NJ Transit said ridership has remained relatively stable during the construction period. “We recognize the inconvenience that the five-week-long schedule adjustments have had on customers’ commutes,” the agency said, adding, “we sincerely thank them for their patience and flexibility during this time.” Amtrak, which also reduced service on some routes, did not respond to a request for comment.

The new bridge is part of a wider effort to modernize rail infrastructure on the Northeast Corridor between Newark and Penn Station. That 10-mile stretch is the most congested part of the line, according to Amtrak, with about 450 trains and 200,000 passenger trips on a typical day.

The bridge being replaced runs low across the Hackensack River on two tracks and carries a mechanism that disconnects and rotates part of the structure to let ships pass. Malfunctions in that system have been a major source of headaches for years, NJ Transit said. A 2019 analysis cited by the agency found 18 major mechanical failures on the bridge between 2014 and 2018, and regular openings for marine traffic and testing caused about 1,000 delays during that period.

David Alff, an English professor at SUNY Buffalo who wrote a book on the history of the Northeast Corridor, said the bridge was a watershed achievement in civil engineering when it was built, but that its problems worsened as the century wore on. “In more recent years, the Portal Bridge has become a kind of symbol for commuter anguish,” he said.

Cardichon said she is crossing her fingers that the anguish ends as promised on Sunday. “I’ll be extremely happy. Like from one to 10, 1,000,” she said. “I’ll even do a happy dance.”