Last Traces of Newark Bay Bridge Being removed

[peconicstation]

Here is a link to a story about the Army Corp of Engineers removing the last traces of the former CNJ Newark Bay Bridge.

Other than the foundation supports that you can see on the Bayonne side, what else is left ?

http://www.nj.com/bayonne/index.ssf/201 ... emovi.html


Ken

[Ken W2KB]

I wonder why the CORPS is removing the stone supports? They were in only a few feet of water, nowhere near the channel. Seems like a waste of taxpayer money.

The article in the link needs a correction. There were not two tracks in each direction. The two inner tracks were bi-directionally signalled as I recall, and three tracks regularly used in the prevailing direction for the morning and evening peak periods.

[NJTRailfan]

The bridge should've never EVER been destroyed in the first place. This bridge easily could've connected the light rail systems in Newark and Jersey City. I guess bigger ships loaded with junk from China and foreign countries is more important then our Mass Transit shortfalls !!! Future generations will curse us for this!

[Steve F45]

Could there still be supports at the bottom of the river that could puncture ships if they are full of ballast or heavy?

[michaelk]

Could there still be supports at the bottom of the river that could puncture ships if they are full of ballast or heavy?

that's the way I read it- the foundations at the bottom of the bay were left after they removed everything else.

Fahley said demolition crews removed all traces of the bridge other than the concrete footings that were the foundation of the bridge.
"That's the only thing that's left there," Fahley said. "When they tried to remove them in 1981, they had a very difficult time."

I think the army corp keeps making the channels deeper to fit larger and larger ships so maybe what was once in the silt is now exposed?

[Ken W2KB]

Could there still be supports at the bottom of the river that could puncture ships if they are full of ballast or heavy?

that's the way I read it- the foundations at the bottom of the bay were left after they removed everything else.

Fahley said demolition crews removed all traces of the bridge other than the concrete footings that were the foundation of the bridge.
"That's the only thing that's left there," Fahley said. "When they tried to remove them in 1981, they had a very difficult time."

I think the army corp keeps making the channels deeper to fit larger and larger ships so maybe what was once in the silt is now exposed?

I was in Bayonne this past Sunday on an unrelated matter, and drove to the shoreline. There was marine work equipment offshore in area of the bay channel. The supports at the shoreline were unchanged from when I last was there some months ago. It does appeat in fact that the removal is of the underwater foundations in or in the vicinity of the channel.

[amtrakowitz]

This'll all be for waste. We're at the brink of a trade war with Red China as it is; they may stop sending their container ships to the USA altogether and instead supply their other markets opening up in Europe, the rest of Asia, Africa and (this to me is a violation of the Monroe Doctrine) South America.

[F3A]

I have said this all along, the drawbridge should have been replaced by two tunnels of two tracks each under Newark Bay.

Nearly 45 years on, and the so-called Aldene Plane still does not adequately serve the interests of the Raritan Valley line.

[Ken W2KB]

I have said this all along, the drawbridge should have been replaced by two tunnels of two tracks each under Newark Bay.

Nearly 45 years on, and the so-called Aldene Plane still does not adequately serve the interests of the Raritan Valley line.

At the time of the Aldene Plan, the forecast was that commuter rail use would continue to decline and in a decade or so disappear entirely due to lack of demand. Note that a prime reason for Aldene was to eliminate the cost and time factor of the ferry operation. At that timeframe there was also serious consideration to extending PATH to Plainfield with a bus connection running on a paved CNJ mainline (leaving one track for freight) for connections to the west.

A much less expensive proposition was rebuilding a draw on one of the two track bridges over Newark Bay to be much wider and higher, but that still would not have eliminated the ferry cost; the parallel second bridge would have been abandoned and the center removed to match the width of the new draw. But that plan never seemed to gain any support except from the City of Bayonne.