Efforts to replace all 592 steel suspender cables supporting the roadway on the George Washington Bridge are now 95% complete and only 24 of the ropes remain to be replaced, the Port Authority said Monday.
The rope replacement, which should be completed on the 93-year-old bridge by the end of 2026, is part of an 11-project project called Restoring the George that began in 2016.
The agency is also on track to reopen the bridge’s rehabilitated southern pedestrian walkway by the end of 2026. The trail, which closed in 2023, is now 35% complete, the agency said.
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The walkway includes a new crosswalk at Hudson Terrace in Fort Lee, a new entrance plaza, a 15-foot-wide accessible ramp to the bridge and a viewing platform to admire the Manhattan and Palisades skylines.
Once the south walkway opens, it will be restricted to pedestrians only, while the rehabilitated north walkway will be for cyclists only.
The renovation of the north path, which reopened in 2023, had widened the bottlenecks around the bridge’s towers, added improved security and safety features, and replaced 171 access steps with more gently sloping and widened access paths from adjacent city streets.
“Maintenance of the world’s busiest bridge requires constant vigilance and major investments to ensure the George Washington Bridge can safely and reliably connect the people and commerce that are the center of this region’s economic engine,” said Kevin O’Toole, chairman of the Port Authority.
“Our Restoring the George program is a unique opportunity to build on the engineering feat that connected the region 93 years ago, and adapt the bridge to new and modern modes of commuting and shared use beyond the original design,” he said.
Restoring the George involves 11 projects
The eleven projects under the Restoring the George project include the rehabilitation of the main steel cable strands at the bridge anchor points in New York and New Jersey, the installation of acoustic monitoring and dehumidification systems on the main cables, the rehabilitation of the pavement of the roadways on the upper and lower levels, and replacing roadway finger joints and 32 deck panels at the two towers.
Work also continues to demolish the old, outdated toll booths at the entrance to the bridge in New Jersey.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the most visited bridge in the world, switched to cashless tolling in July 2022, eliminating the need for the old toll booths and E-ZPass readers. Gantries installed over the bridge approaches contain the newer cashless toll equipment.
Demolition of the GWB toll plaza began in March 2023 and is expected to be completed in 2025. The work takes place during the day and at night.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: All 592 George Washington Bridge Braces Replaced as 95% Done
