By Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The reopening of all Pulaski Skyway lanes has been pushed back for a third time to spring 2018 after state transportation officials decided to replace retaining walls while lanes on the 3.5-mile span are closed.



Here's a timeline of the $1 billion project that started in April 2014.

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An 85-year old bridge needs help

On April 7, 2014, New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson took the media and officials on a tour of the Skyway to show the corrosion in the network of bridges and causeways, and why the rehabilitation project is necessary. While there was significant deterioration to parts of the Skyway, officials said the Skyway's overall structure was still sound. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Traffic-pocalyse

Police in Jersey City and other municipalities prepared for two years of what some called a "traffic-pocalyse" when the northbound lanes were closed on April 14, 2014. Preparations included converting the shoulder into a temporary travel lane during rush hours on the New Jersey Turnpike Hudson County extension east. (John Munson/The Star-Ledger)

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A planned 2016 reopening

The expected traffic nightmare and gridlock didn't happen as northbound lanes of the Skyway were closed for constriction to start to replace the bridge deck. Southbound traffic continued to use those lanes. Original plans called for reopening all lanes in 2016, but the full 10 phases of the project wouldn't be completed until 2020. (Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Rust never sleeps

The rough winter of 2014-1205 and the discovery of badly rusted floor beams that help support the bridge deck knocked the project off schedule and added $20 million in cost. Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox holds up a rusted Skyway piece during a tour in April 2015 to announce the Skyway would reopen in late 2016 because of the extra work. (Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Uncovering the covered roadway

Meanwhile, work continued on the rehabilitation of Route 139, also known as the Covered Roadway. Part of that project involved "uncovering" the roadway and rebuilding several bridges that carry local Jersey City streets over the highway. (Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The race to reopen lanes

During 2015, the entire Skyway had to be closed for several weekends while construction crews replaced the floor beams. By November 2015, crews were still working on the northbound side, installing street lights and guide rails as the DOT planned to reopen the northbound lanes and move southbound traffic to the rehabilitated side of the Skyway so the bridge deck on the south side could be replaced. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Probe focuses on Skyway financing

A different problem surfaced in 2015, this one about how the Skyway project was financed. In 2011, Gov. Chris Christie announced that $1.8 billion in Port Authority money, which was earmarked for the canceled ARC project to build new Hudson River rail tunnels, would finance the Skyway and Route 139 rehabilitation, and construction of a new Route 7 Wittpenn bridge.

In 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission investigated whether investors in Port Authority bonds were misled when the projects were swapped and the roadwork was justified as being for feeder roads to the Lincoln Tunnel. (NJ.com file photo)

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Drivers hit a speed bump

Drivers encountered some literal bumps in the road throughout 2015 when the Skyway had to be totally closed on numerous weekends for installation of floor beams across the width of the roadway. When the Skyway reopened, drivers were faced with a series of construction plates across the road, which acted like speed bumps. (Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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The other bridge project

Despite providing an extra lane on the eastbound New Jersey Turnpike extension to make up for the loss of the Skyway, there still were traffic problems in the area, as work was ongoing to replace the Route 7 Wittpenn Bridge, which parallels the Skyway. The Route 7 bridge project is at the point where a contract will be awarded later this year to demolish the old bridge once the new span is completed. (Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Delay ahead

A lane switch didn't happen as planned and in February 2016. The lane swap didn't happen until April 2016 and it was done in stages, which had drivers switching between the new northbound lanes and the old southbound lanes. The full lane switch was made in June 2016, which also closed the only exit that had remained open on the Skyway for Raymond Boulevard. (Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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See you next summer

Plans to reopen all Skyway lanes were pushed back in mid-June 2016 when DOT officials announced that the southbound bridge deck replacement would not be done until summer 2017. Officials said a date would be announced in the Spring after they determined how much progress had been made during the winter. (Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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P.A. fined over Skyway financing plan

On January 10, 2017, the Port Authority paid a $400,000 fine to the SEC to settle charges that it misled investors who bought bonds. The bi-state authority was required to admit wrongdoing on the $1.8 billion funding, which diverted funds from the canceled ARC rail tunnel. Investors did not know the funding would be used for those projects when they bought the bonds. This was the first case of a municipal bond issuer admitting wrongdoing in an SEC enforcement action. (Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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So close, but so far

Winter 2016-2017 was kind to the Skyway project and bridge deck work continued through the colder months when crews replaced 77 percent of the south side bridge deck. But on April 12, DOT officials said they decided to push back the full opening of all Skyway lanes to spring 2018 to do work that wasn't included in the original project. That work would replace retaining walls between Route 139 and the Skyway. (Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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What drivers will get

As of mid-April 2017, new bridge decks had been installed on 2.7 miles of the southbound lanes, with guide rails, street lights and a concrete driving surface still to be installed on that side of the Skyway. (Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Collateral damage

Pushing back the Skyway reopening also affects a project to replace the bridge decks on the eastbound New Jersey Turnpike Hudson County extension through Jersey City. That project had been put on hold because the extension has been the alternate route while the eastbound Skyway was shut down. Turnpike Authority officials had planned to start the project in late 2017 after the Skyway reopened. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

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Read more:

Skyway closed for two years for rehab.



Harsh winter, rusted steel pushes Skyway schedule back.

Skyway reopening pushed back until Summer 2017Port Authority pays $400K to settle Skyway funding



Skyway lane reopening pushed back a third time