USDOT cuts scope of Amtrak's NJ Dock Bridge rehab project

Amtrak's New Jersey Dock Bridge rehabilitation project will be scaled back to lower costs and reduce its time of completion, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced yesterday.

The Federal Railroad Administration and Amtrak have agreed to a revised scope for the planned rehab of the bridge, which includes shaving $140 million off the project's original $375 million price tag by removing "unnecessary aesthetic costs" like enhanced lighting and deferring rehab work on structural elements that still have a useful life, according to U.S. Department of Transportation press release.

The project now will focus on strengthening and reinforcing the bridge's steel components. Doing so will move up the project's completion date by nearly two years, USDOT officials said.

Although not providing all matching grant funding, Amtrak owns the bridge and is performing the rehabilitative work, they added.

"This new plan will help us quickly increase the bridge’s reliability and safety, while also maximizing the useful life of this critical piece of infrastructure," Amtrak President Roger Harris said in the USDOT press release.

Opened in 1935, the Dock Bridge is a six-track, triple-span moveable lift bridge located along one of the busiest sections of the Northeast Corridor, crossing the Passaic River between Newark and Harrison, New Jersey, according to Amtrak's website.

The bridge carries 720 daily Amtrak, Port-Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) and New Jersey Transit trains between Newark and Manhattan. The bridge often gets stuck, interrupting the flow of passenger-rail traffic. The rehab project is being funded with grant dollars from the Federal State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Program.