In June, the Port Authority announced it would give the NJ-Staten Island Goethals Bridge a $63 million rehabilitation. The three-year job, which will start in April, is meant to keep the span in a "state of good repair," until the agency can move ahead with a longer-term solution for the 75-year old bridge.

The Port Authority’s announcement was the most recent step in a two-decade long debate on what to do about the bridge. Previous plans have proposed reconstructing, widening, or replacing the bridge. An environmental review of the project conducted by the Port Authority in the mid-1990s recommended a controversial "twinning" of the bridge as the preferred option. The twin bridge plan has been heavily opposed on Staten Island and in the Elizabeth, NJ area since the environmental review process began. Opponents say twinning the bridge will only induce more people to use the bridge, rather than provide any long-term solution to escalating traffic rates.

In March, however, the Staten Island Advance reported that Port Authority budget straits and post-Sept. 11 project reordering would cause at least a five year delay for the controversial Goethals "twin" bridge project.

Now, according to the Advance, Port Authority officials favor bridge replacement, rather than the "twin" plan. Reasons for the switch, other than the huge opposition to the twin, are not altogether apparent. The scale and design features of a new bridge are also as yet unknown.

An Advance editorial last week advocated for a new bridge, with a mass transit line, to replace the Goethals. The piece highlighted the congested nightmare the bridge has become. "Bridge-users, half of whom live on Staten Island, can’t go deep into the 21^st century using a bridge that was designed in a pre-tractor trailer, pre-SUV era when the current traffic volume was unimaginable," said the editorial. But it also noted that if the bridge project is not coupled with a more comprehensive planning project to alleviate congestion on adjacent roads, then a new bridge, which would cost a minimum of $600 million, will be in vain.

According to the Advance, the replacement bridge project would take at least 7 years, beginning with a new environmental review to begin this fall. 

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