“The Port Authority’s director of bridges, tunnels and terminals, Cedric Fulton, told the Board of Commissioners at their monthly meeting on Thursday that the agency was considering tunnels among six options being considered to replace the 78-year-old helix.”
– Steve Strunsky, NJ Advance Media
The Lincoln Tunnel’s helix was completed in 1937, when FDR was president, the Hindenburg tragically caught fire in Lakehurst, Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released, and SPAM was introduced. It’s one thing to be a history lesson. It’s another thing altogether to be the major access point to one of the busiest tunnels in the world, with over 42 million vehicles a year passing through the Lincoln Tunnel.
The Port Authority is currently considering options to replace the Helix with a similar design or something completely different. Construction of the Helix replacement is currently scheduled to start in 2019 and take 5 years to complete. Major infrastructure projects like these are unique to older, dense urban areas like Hoboken and Weehawken and take considerably more time to plan and execute than “clean slate” projects in other states.
