STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- After six years of ongoing construction, the Bayonne Bridge will open Monday, Feb. 11, at 5 a.m. with two lanes of traffic in each direction, as the Port Authority nears the completion of the Navigational Clearance Project, better known as “Raise the Roadway.”

The nearly $1.7 billion project, which began construction in 2013, elevated the deck of the Bayonne Bridge from 151 feet to 215 feet in order to accommodate larger, 21st-century container ships that were unable to fit under the bridge’s previous configuration.

“I want to thank the locals for being so patient with us, working with the Port Authority family. It’s been a six-year slog, but I’ll tell you that we’re better because of it and because of the cooperation and input we’ve received from you,” said Port Authority chairman Kevin O’Toole.

The raised roadway initially opened on Feb. 20, 2017, allowing larger vessels to reach Port Newark and Elizabeth-Port Authority Marine Terminal in New Jersey, as well as Global Container Terminals New York in Mariners Harbor.

“It has been an enormous success in terms of the record amount of cargo that the Port is now receiving,” said Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton.

Live from the Bayonne Bridge. (Enjoy the view.) Posted by Staten Island Advance on Friday, February 8, 2019

However, the bridge opened while only allowing one lane of traffic in each direction, with additional work required to expand the bridge’s width to meet modern transportation standards.

Starting Monday, the Bayonne Bridge’s 1,651-foot-long main span roadway will feature two, 12-foot-wide lanes in each direction, as well as outside and inside shoulders.

“What we’re marking today is a very important construction milestone where the entire main span of the bridge now moves from being two lanes to being four lanes, and that will be four lanes of modern, 12-foot wide lanes. It will, in addition, have shoulders for places where disabled vehicles can pull off instead of causing an enormous backup,” said Cotton.

Once the main span opens with two-lane, bi-directional traffic on Monday, the Morningstar Road off-ramp and Trantor Place on-ramp will also open on Staten Island, in addition to the Avenue A on-ramp in Bayonne.

The Port Authority will close the bridge from Friday at 9 p.m. until early Monday morning in preparation for the opening of the new roadway.

ADDITIONAL WORK TO BE DONE

Some minor work remains to be completed on the project, including finalizing the bridge’s access points in order to provide two travel lanes in each direction, similar to the bridge’s new configuration. The Port Authority anticipates that this work will be completed sometime this spring. Some additional night and weekend closures will be required to complete the access points, with the hope of completing all necessary closures before the busy summer months.

“In order for us to finish certain elements of work, we need to do it at night,” said Roger Prince, deputy director of tunnels, bridges and terminals for the Port Authority. “We’ll be putting out a schedule for night work, and they’ll probably be a few more weekends. It’s just the nature of certain things, we can’t do them within a short period of time.”

“We’re really driving for the spring to complete all work that has closure impacts, so as we go into the summer we’ll have a full bridge for the busy summer season,” he added.

Upon finalization of the project, the 10-foot shared path for pedestrians and bicyclist will open, offering an alternative transportation option for Staten Islanders and New Jersey residents.

“Staten Islanders have absolutely been asking for the bridges to be wider, safer and more passable,” said deputy borough president Ed Burke. “This new generation of bridges is so much better and so this is really a welcome day as this bridge comes closer to fruition. It’s an engineering marvel, it’s an icon, and the pedestrian aspects of it make it even better.”

Burke was joined by Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) and Assemblyman Charles Fall (D-North Shore), who also shared their excitement with the near completion of this pivotal project.

“This is a great bridge that will go a long way toward alleviating some of the traffic problems on the Staten Island Expressway,” said Rose.

“It’s an amazing day. The Port Authority has done a really great job here, it’s going to be opening up really soon and I’m really looking forward to it,” said Fall. “Especially when you think about how wide it’s going to be and the pedestrian access.”

The project utilized innovative construction techniques, with the new roadway being constructed above the existing roadway, with minimal disruption to traffic flow.

“It’s like performing open-heart surgery on a runner while he’s running a marathon. We had to keep it open, move thousands of cars a day, goods and services were coming in by ship, and we had to keep that all happening,” said Steve Plate, chief of major capital projects for the Port Authority told the Advance during an exclusive tour of the project in July 2018.

EFFECT ON LOCAL ECONOMY

Now over a year since the first large vessel passed under the newly raised roadway of the Bayonne Bridge on Sept. 7, 2017, the area has seen a massive boost in economic activity as a result of record amounts of cargo, according to the Port Authority.

“We knew this important infrastructure project would yield tangible results as soon as it was completed, and we’ve seen those predictions realized in the first year,” O’Toole said in September.

The following numbers were provided by the Port Authority:

Cargo volumes in the port increased by 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2018, with the port setting new monthly records for nine months straight.

The volume for import cargo containers filled with commodities rose by 10.1 percent during the first four months of 2018, while the U.S. and East Coast averages rose by only 7.2 and 6.4 percent, respectively.

Top 20 import commodities jumped by 11.4 percent during the first four months of 2018, with major increases in furniture, appliances, beverages and clothing.

The raised roadway has also benefited the area environmentally, with more cargo arriving on fewer vessels. Almost 7 percent of vessels currently servicing the port were unable to do so under the previous configuration.

“The port already supports 400,000 jobs and $25.7 billion in personal income wages and we expect those numbers to grow as bigger ships and more cargo come here -- thanks to the benefits from this project,” said O’Toole.