The Port Authority is kicking off its "Goethals Bridge Modernization Project" environmental review with scoping hearings on October 5th and 6th in Staten Island and Elizabeth, NJ, respectively.

The project is likely to seek to replace the outmoded span with a new bridge. The PA says the project is needed to improve safety, handle increased car and truck traffic, speed up traffic flows with seamless E-ZPass applications, and provide a crossing for future transit links. An earlier plan to build a new bridge in addition to renovating the old span will be considered again but it was defeated during the 1990s by community, environmental and local political opposition.

The upcoming hearings were first mentioned deep in a Staten Island Advance story, and calls this week to the Port Authority press office were unhelpful at best. However, the Coast Guard, lead federal agency for the project, provided a website for project documents (goethalseis.com) and said notices for the meetings were in the mail. 

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