Statement on the NJTA Turnpike Extension Announcement from EmpowerNJ, Turnpike Trap, and Hudson County Complete Streets Coalitions

For Immediate Release: Monday, December 22, 2025

Contact

John Reichman, john@johnreichmanlaw.com

Talya Schwartz, Vice Chair of Hudson County Complete Streets, talya@hudcostreets.org

“Our coalitions represent hundreds of thousands of residents across the state and in Hudson County, and we have led the campaign for more than 5 years to stop the toxic $10.7 billion plan to expand the Newark Bay-Hudson County Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike.

Late last Friday, after 5 p.m., (the timing was no accident) Governor Murphy and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority sent out a press release touting a so-called “compromise” regarding the $10.7 billion Turnpike expansion plan which suggested that some “travel lanes” would not be added in Jersey City, but adding four additional bridge lanes between Newark and Jersey City, increasing car and truck traffic by more than 20,000 vehicles a day, would proceed as is. This “compromise” was made without the knowledge of Jersey City and the opponents of the project, including our coalitions.   

We would be the first to cheer a true victory stopping the widening of the Turnpike Extension – but Friday night’s announcement does not fundamentally alter the project, will potentially make traffic worse, and raises more questions than answers. Gov. Murphy’s correct decision not to add travel lanes east of Exit 14A immediately begs the question of why there will be a doubling of travel lanes west of 14A and a continuation of the plan to expand and double the capacity of the Newark Bay Bridge. Doubling the capacity of the NBB now makes even less sense. Four lanes of east-bound bridge traffic will now perpetually merge into two lanes at Exit 14A causing monumental and continual traffic jams, leading to the very thing NJTA is supposedly working to reduce – traffic congestion. This increased traffic on the expanded Bridge will cause even more cars to cut through local Jersey City streets to reach the Holland Tunnel, leading to worse air quality and traffic in Jersey City.

The announcement is also murky about what the NJTA plans to do east of the Bridge. While “travel lanes” will supposedly not be added, NJTA has not stated whether it will still be spending $4 billion to tear down the existing structures and make them bigger, which would still increase the footprint of the highway over Jersey City parks and schools. Furthermore the expanded shoulders could later be converted to travel lanes, which has happened elsewhere. And nothing says NJTA couldn’t revisit lane expansion in Jersey City after the Newark Bay Bridge is doubled in size. There would be pressure to do this because of the bottleneck that NJTA will be creating eastbound after the Bridge. 

The announcement also attempts to portray the decision as driven by cost – but there is no analysis of supposed $500 million in savings. We do know that since the NJTA stated in 2022 that the Bridge Expansion would cost $6.2 billion, costs have skyrocketed due to inflation and tariffs. The last three years of inflation alone would mean that the Newark Bay Bridge expansion will likely cost between $7 to 10 billion. In an affordability moment, where NJ Transit is still not fixed and both transit riders and drivers are paying more each year in fares and tolls – it is clear there needs to be re-examination of the need, scope and cost of the project.

NJTA has not considered a true compromise that would actually accomplish the safety and traffic goals of the project and save billions of dollars: building one new six-lane bridge, instead of two new four-lane bridges.  The One-Bridge Alternative would not only better accomplish the Project’s goals and save billions of dollars in construction costs that can be much more effectively invested in NJ Transit, but also reduce air pollution, noise pollution and construction time; lessen a host of other environmental impacts such as the disturbance of hazardous substances in Newark Bay; ameliorate a bottleneck that the existing plan will create; and not require added travel lanes east of the Bridge. 

We urge Gov.-elect Sherrill to direct the NJ Turnpike Authority to look at this project with new eyes and through the lens of affordability, transit needs, and a new analysis – and not rubberstamp an expansion project that now makes even less sense.”