Pulaski Skyway - Truck and Other Safety Issues

Truck and Other Safety Issues

The slippery concrete surfacing, steep left-side ramps, center breakdown lane, and wide-open alignment built for high speeds all contributed to a high number of crashes. Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City passed an ordinance in November 1933 banning trucks from its section of the skyway, which effectively banned them from the whole road. Enforcement began on January 15, 1934, when Jersey City police began arresting truck drivers using the skyway. The New Jersey State Highway Commission approved the ban on January 23.

As a result of controversy caused by the ban, on February 6, 300,000 ballots were distributed to motorists on the skyway, asking whether trucks should be banned. Mayor Hague promised to go with the majority, which agreed with the ban. The matter was also taken to court, with one of the truck drivers convicted arguing that the ban was an unreasonable restraint of interstate commerce, and that since the federal government contributed money towards the road, Jersey City lacked the power to ban trucks. On August 14, Justice Thomas W. Trenchard of the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld the ban, stating that "the court is not at liberty to substitute its judgment for that of the municipality's as to the best and most feasible manner of curing traffic evils and traffic congestion where such regulation bears a direct relationship to public safety and is reasonable and not arbitrary." The Tonnele Circle Viaduct, a new offramp allowing trucks from the Holland Tunnel to bypass Tonnele Circle, opened in September 1938.

On May 21, 1952, large numbers of trucks were spotted by Jersey City police entering the city on the skyway. Upon pulling over the drivers, they were told that the exit in Newark for the truck route was closed for construction. A call to Newark police confirmed the situation. Hudson County police refused to force trucks to exit before Jersey City, since there was no state law banning trucks from the skyway. Jersey City Police Chief James McNamara gave in, and trucks were temporarily allowed to use the skyway, though only in one direction.

When the road was first opened, it carried five lanes; the center one was intended as a breakdown lane, but was in actuality used as a suicide lane for passing slower traffic. By the 1950s, the skyway was seeing over 400 crashes per year; an aluminum median barrier was added in mid-1956, in addition to a new coat of pavement designed to make the road less slippery.

The skyway was a constraint in the building of the north–south New Jersey Turnpike near the west end in 1951. The turnpike had to be built low enough to provide enough clearance underneath the skyway, but high enough to clear the nearby Passaic River. Turnpike engineers could have built over the skyway (at a much higher cost) or built under the skyway's trusses; the latter option was chosen. The Newark Bay Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike (I-78) opened in September 1956, finally allowing Holland Tunnel-bound trucks to bypass the old surface road. As part of a 2005 seismic retrofit project, the Turnpike Authority lowered its bridge to increase vertical clearance and allow for full-width shoulders, which had been constrained by the location of the skyway supports.

In the aftermath of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota in August 2007, local officials called for a renovation of the skyway and its non-redundant trusses. The work, aimed at preventing metal fatigue and other structural instabilities that are believed to have caused the Minneapolis disaster, was expected to cost $10 million and take one year to complete. The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) identified the skyway in 2008 as one of eight "high priority" bridges in need of repairs. After work began it was determined that the repairs needed were more extensive, costly, and time-consuming than expected, and the agency estimates rehabilitation will cost about $1–1.3 billion. Work has proceeded without the closure of the roadway, but rather alternate lane closings affecting the 67,000 daily crossings. In 2009, NJDOT installed nets to catch falling pieces of the structure. The department spends tens of millions of dollars each year to maintain the skyway and estimated that it would take a decade before the state could afford to rehabilitate or replace the structure.