Two recent reports show that New Jersey had more bridges in need of repair in 2019 than in 2018, although the number of bridges in poor condition went down. According to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association Bridge Report, New Jersey had 2,357 bridges in need of repairs in 2019, with an estimated cost of $9.9 billion. This is up from 2018, when NJ had 2,305 bridges in need of repair with an estimated cost of $7 billion. The average age of bridges in New Jersey is 55 years old.

“These reports show that New Jersey’s Bridge Repair Program is starting to work, but we need to do more. There has been some progress on bridges in poor condition, but more than a third of our bridges are still in need of repair. The failure to fix these bridges is a safety issue in some cases, but in all cases it leads to more traffic and more pollution. That is why we need to adopt a stronger Fix-It-First program so that we can put our money into fixing infrastructure that needs it instead of widening parts of the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “That money would be better spent making our bridges safer and improving mass transit in New Jersey.”

According to the Federal Highway Administration’s annual report, 7.7% of New Jersey’s 6,786 bridges are rated as structurally deficient or in poor condition. This translates to 529 bridges, and makes New Jersey 21st out of the 50 states. A year ago, 8.1% of the state’s bridges were rated in poor condition

“Some of our key bridges are in need or repairs. Bridges like 495, I-80, and even on the Turnpike itself should be the priority instead of highway widenings, and these will be extremely expensive to fix. Instead, the Turnpike Authority wants to spend $16 billion on widening projects that will increase greenhouse gases and traffic on these roads. Instead of focusing on highway widenings that don’t work, they should be using this money to repair these bridges that are in poor condition across the state. These funds could also go toward improving NJ Transit like expanding the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Line, the Monmouth Ocean Middlesex Light Rail Line, or the South Jersey Light Rail Line,” said Jeff Tittel. “These funds could also go toward transportation solutions to decrease traffic, like Bus Rapid Transit or dedicated carpool lanes that would reduce wear and tear on our infrastructure.”

Out of the states’ 10 most heavily traveled bridges that are structurally deficient, three of them are under repair. These include Route 495 over U.S. Routes 1 and 9 (built in 1939), I-80 over the Rockaway River (build in 1959), and the Route 3 bridge over the Northern Secondary Railroad and the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (built in 1929).

“New Jersey needs to step up when it comes to our transportation infrastructure. Instead of widening highways, we need to be improving our existing roads and bridges and expanding mass transit in the state. These reports show that we have thousands of bridges that are still in need of repair in our state. People in New Jersey are paying more money to be stuck in traffic longer. We need to adopt a Fix-It-First Program instead of spending billions on highway widening projects,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “If New Jersey really cared about commuters and keeping people safe, they would focus spending on mass transit and bridge repairs – not highway widenings.”