May 13, 2024 – Amtrak Chairman Tony Coscia and NJ TRANSIT President & CEO Kevin Corbett were joined by about 100 government, labor and business leaders, including Alliance for Action President Jerry Keenan and Senior Vice President Chris Hartman this afternoon for a special ceremony to recognize the 50% completion of the Portal North Bridge project.
Crews broke ground on the $1.56 billion project, NJ TRANSIT’s largest-ever construction award, in August of 2022 and the first track is scheduled to open in 2026.
- NJ TRANSIT President & CEO Kevin Corbett
- Amtrak Chairman Tony Coscia
- NJ Transportation Commissioner Fran O’Connor
- Congressman Bill Pascrell
- Congresswoman Mickie Sherrill
- Congressman Robert Menendez, Jr.
- U.S. Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Amit Bose
- U.S. Transportation Department Regional Administrator Michael Culotta
- Gateway Development Commission CEO Kris Kolluri
(Left to Right) Jerry Keenan, President, NJ Alliance for Action, Balpreet Grewal-Virk, NJ Commissioner and Co-Chair, Gateway Development Commission, Kevin Corbett, President & CEO, NJ TRANSIT, Janine Bauer, New Jersey Commissioner, Gateway Development Commission, Anthony Coscia, Chairman, Amtrak, Stephen Gardner, CEO, Amtrak, Kris Kolluri, CEO, Gateway Development Commission, Amit Bose, Administrator, Federal Railroad Administration, Michael Culotta, Regional Administrator, US Department of Transportation
The Portal North Bridge is the first project of the Gateway Program, which will double rail capacity between Newark and New York City.
“Today is a huge landmark in a project that will transform lives and businesses across the region — and that’s why we have supported it from Day One,” Alliance for Action President Jerry Keenan said. “The current span is a major bottleneck and a source of delays, making us late for work, late for dinner and late for our children’s activities.”
The two-track replacement bridge will replace the 114-year-old span with a modern, high-level fixed crossing that does not open or close, eliminating the risk of malfunction. It’s also creating thousands of construction jobs.
The Alliance for Action is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024. Since 1974, we’ve worked as a non-partisan and non-profit association representing thousands of business, labor, government, utility, education, professional, and other New Jersey leaders. Our mission is to improve New Jersey’s economy through the promotion of environmentally friendly capital construction and infrastructure investment.
