For years, NYMTC documents have identified the Goethals twin as a "project of regional significance." But the latest report singles it out as excluded from the conformity analysis. Presumably it will be included if the Port Authority decides to try to advance the project out of planning purgatory .

However, the project has pariah status in most quarters outside of the Port Authority staff and NY road agencies that have endorsed the concept of the "southern gateway": a huge truck route across Staten Island and southern Brooklyn to JFK Airport and Long Island.

The Port Authority is spending the next several months developing a multi-year capital program - it remains to be seen whether the agency will try to bring the Goethals twin back to life, maintain its current ghost status or bow to the inevitable and give it up.