51 off-duty cops, new turn restrictions to help Jersey City handle Pulaski Skyway shutdown

By Terrence T. McDonald
The Jersey Journal

Calling Jersey City ?ground zero? for traffic repercussions related to the upcoming Pulaski Skyway shutdown, city officials are putting together a plan to mitigate what could be a two-year traffic nightmare as motorists cut through Jersey City to make it to the Holland Tunnel.

The plan includes prohibiting turns at a number of intersections; stationing 51 off-duty police officers at assumed problem areas; and opening up the Office of Emergency Management on April 14, the first weekday after northbound lanes on the aging span are shut down.

The plans being drawn up now are subject to change if April 14 comes and traffic problems aren?t quite where everyone assumes they will be, city officials caution.


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Sounds like fun !! God save the Republic...

Jeff Goldman/The Star-Ledger

Some Academy and Suburban Transit buses that normally use the Pulaski Skyway to reach lower Manhattan on weekday mornings will experiment with an alternate route when the road's northbound lanes close for repairs later this year.

A undetermined number of buses will try to reach the Wall Street area by traveling across Staten Island, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Transportation confirmed to The Star-Ledger today.

The buses that avoid the Holland Tunnel will cross the Goethals Bridge and then take the Staten Island Expressway to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, spokesman Joe Dee said. From there, the buses will travel east on the Gowanus Expressway before crossing the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel into Manhattan.

A dispatcher at Academy Bus in Hoboken said he didn't have information yet on which bus routes might be diverted. A person who answered the phone at the company's Toms River office said a manager would not be available until Monday.

Dee said private cars are not being encouraged to travel from New Jersey to lower Manhattan via Staten Island, contrary to the claim of a New York politician.

The New Jersey Department of Transportation suggests alternate routes when the closure takes effect. The alternate routes are Truck Routes 1& 9 and the New Jersey Turnpike's Newark Bay Extension through Hudson County.

An additional travel lane will be added on the Turnpike extension ? the shoulder will be opened to eastbound motorists. NJ Transit is also expected to beef up service on trains and buses.

On a typical weekday, 105 buses uses the Pulaski Skyway to reach Jersey City and lower Manhattan, Dee said. About 40,000 vehicles travel on the Skyway a day, including 10,000 between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.