{"id":147909,"date":"2026-02-27T23:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/147909\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T23:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:48:16","slug":"solomon-and-baraka-in-favor-of-one-bridge-solution-to-repair-newark-bay-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/147909\/","title":{"rendered":"Solomon and Baraka in favor of one-bridge solution to repair Newark Bay Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jersey City Mayor James Solomon and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka are in favor of a one-bridge solution to repair the Newark Bay Bridge, Phase 1 of the widely panned $10.7 billion Turnpike widening project, they wrote in a February 6th letter to Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D). <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hudsoncountyview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Baraka-Solomon.png\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-98109\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Baraka-Solomon-e1772221457275.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"355\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>By John Heinis\/Hudson County View<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe write to you in our respective capacities as Mayor of Newark and Mayor of Jersey City to raise serious concerns regarding the New Jersey Turnpike Authority\u2019s plan to replace the Newark Bay Bridge (the \u201cNBB\u201d) with new twin bridges rather than rehabilitating or replacing the existing structure with a single bridge,\u201d they wrote to Sherrill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believe the latter option will not only be better for our communities, but also aligns far better with core goals of your administration, especially making the state more affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Their stance is the same as that of 65 advocacy groups who <a href=\"https:\/\/hudsoncountyview.com\/65-advocacy-groups-write-sherrill-pushing-for-1-bridge-not-2-for-turnpike-widening\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">wrote to Sherrill yesterday<\/a>, though the letter from Baraka and Solomon was not gone public until it was obtained by HCV today.<\/p>\n<p>While the chief elected officials of New Jersey\u2019s two largest cities appreciated that the initially proposed six-lane approach had been abandoned in December, as Solomon <a href=\"https:\/\/hudsoncountyview.com\/solomon-celebrates-revised-turnpike-expansion-for-jersey-city-but-still-wants-more\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said at the time<\/a>, they remain opposed to the proposed two-bridge plan for Phase I.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the wrong decision for the communities we represent and for the State.<br \/>Newark and Jersey City are the two communities that will be most impacted by the New Jersey Turnpike\u2019s project,\u201d Baraka and Solomon wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs elected leaders representing hundreds of thousands of residents in these two communities, we share your goals of making New Jersey more affordable, making government more efficient, reducing pollution, and responsibly stewarding public funds. The Twin Bridge Replacement Plan would achieve none of these goals, and would in fact be detrimental to them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Similar to what the Turnpike Trap Coalition expressed, Solomon and Baraka feel a one-bridge solution will reduce construction costs, provide more funding for public transit, reduce air pollution, and avoid traffic bottlenecks in Jersey City and Newark.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss this important and time-sensitive matter in greater detail as NJTA has stated it will begin construction this year,\u201d they concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Sherrill\u2019s office did not return an email seeking comment on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jersey City Mayor James Solomon and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka are in favor of a one-bridge solution to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[13338,62028,9,24,63,62029,134,136,135,62030,62031],"class_list":{"0":"post-147909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-james-solomon","9":"tag-new-jersey-turnpike-authority","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-ras-baraka","14":"tag-staten-island","15":"tag-staten-island-headlines","16":"tag-staten-island-news","17":"tag-turnpike-trap-coalition","18":"tag-turnpike-widening-project"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}