George Washington Bridge restoration project reaches milestone

All 592 of the George Washington Bridge’s original suspender ropes have been replaced, the Port Authority announced Thursday.
This marks a major milestone in a $2 billion restoration project of the nearly 100-year-old bridge.

All of the George Washington Bridge’s original suspender ropes have been replaced, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced on Thursday. This marks the completion of a seven-year effort and a major milestone in a comprehensive $2 billion rehabilitation project of the almost 100-year-old bridge.

Over the last seven years, Port Authority crews have worked to replace each of the bridge’s 592 suspender ropes. To accomplish this, crews secured temporary ropes at each panel point across the bridge as well as the adjacent panel points to support the bridge’s weight at that location, the Port Authority said. They then disconnected and removed the original ropes. After that, crews installed and secured the new ropes to the span’s girders, finally disconnecting the temporary ropes.

The suspender ropes range in length from 38 feet to 674 feet, with the longest near the bridge’s two towers and the shortest at the center of the span, according to Port Authority.

Though traffic was allowed to continue flowing throughout the duration of this project, one sidewalk was closed at a time to allow work crews to access the ropes. This also enabled the agency to completely rebuild both of the span’s shared use sidewalks.

The completely rebuilt north sidewalk reopened after every suspender rope on that side of the bridge was replaced with the south sidewalk closing in February 2023. Now that the suspender rope project is complete, the Port Authority expects to complete work on the south sidewalk and reopen the path in 2026. Once the south sidewalk’s construction is done, pedestrians will have dedicated use of it while bicyclists will exclusively use the north sidewalk.

The bridge’s main cables were also rehabilitated as part of this project with 26,474 compacted wires within each cable being recoated and rewrapped. A new elastomeric wrap was added along with a new dehumidification system to extend the lifespan of the main cables. According to Port Authority, if the main cable wires from all four cables were laid end to end it would be long enough to wrap around the Earth four times.

“Replacing all 592 suspender ropes on the George Washington Bridge is a remarkable feat of engineering as we work to rehabilitate and renew nearly every major component of the world’s busiest bridge,” said Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole. “Over seven years, our teams diligently planned and worked with precision and perseverance to ensure the bridge remains safe and reliable for millions who depend on it for work, commuting or travel.”

He continued, “As the bridge nears its centennial, we’re proud to help preserve its legacy as an engineering marvel while securing its future for decades to come.”

This work is all part of a $2 billion project known as the Restoring the George program. This program is described by Port Authority as “one of the most ambitious renewal projects among the Port Authority legacy infrastructure and most comprehensive rehabilitation since the bridge opened 94 years ago.”

This program touches nearly every major component of the bridge, addressing wear and tear from the approximately 100 million vehicles that cross it each year.

Multiple projects under this program have already been completed with several ongoing or remaining such as the rehabilitation of the Center Avenue and Lemoine Avenue bridges, the rehabilitation of lower-level steel, paint removal and replacement of movable maintenance platforms, among other things.

The full program is expected to be completed in 2030.

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