If you've been dying to follow the progress of the new Wittpenn Bridge deck as it makes its way via barge to Kearny from Washington state, you're in luck.

State officials have unveiled a new tracking tool that will tell you how close the deck for the $480 million bridge is to its future home over the Hackensack River, straddling the Kearny/Jersey City border.

The barge holding the orthotropic deck -- the part of the roadway that elevates to allow ships to pass under -- is scheduled to enter the Panama Canal tomorrow. It left Washington on June 6.

It is expected to take 16 hours for the barge to get through the canal and then start traveling north up the Atlantic coast.

The purple dot represents the barge holding the deck of the new Wittpenn Bridge.

The deck was manufactured by Vigor at its facilities in Clackamas, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington.

Once completed, the new bridge will rise 70 feet above the water when closed, compared to 35 feet for the existing Wittpenn Bridge, which runs for 2,169 feet and was built in 1930.

Construction on the new span is expected to end in 2022.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.