Vote for the Worst Road in New Jersey – The Pulaski Skyway to New York Will Close for Two Years

Like it isn’t hard enough to get into the city comes word that the Pulaski Skyway will be closed to New York bound traffic for 2 years beginning right after the Super Bowl takes place in 2014.

I always hated the Skyway. It’s old, decrepit, and simply dangerous. There are no shoulders, and some of the approaches are downright dangerous, especially if you try and access the Skyway from Kearney.

So while it’s a good thing that work will finally be done on the Skyway, imagine the traffic on the Bay Extension of the Turnpike, or Truck Route 1 and 9…not to mention the inbound Lincoln Tunnel on any given day.

According to nbc4newyork,

The 80-year-old bridge is "massively used, massively worn out," according to one transportation source, who declined to be named.

While rebuilding the Pulaski to last another 75 years will take several years, the project that affects New York-bound commuters will last about two years.

During that time, two of the bridge's four lanes will be redecked at a time, but only outbound traffic will be allowed, no matter which lanes are under construction, transportation sources said.

Drivers who regularly traverse the Pulaski Skyway unhappily calculated the extra time it would take them to cross the highway during the closure.

"It's going to take me an hour or two later to go home because there's going to be traffic on the other side," said Aliyah Gray of Jersey City. "I'm upset."
But David Serro, also of Jersey City, understood the necessity of updating the old infrastructure.
"If they need to maintain the highway, they necessarily have to do something to it," he said. "We have to maintain it. If not, it's just going to be a dilapidated highway."

Hudson County executive Tom DeGise recognized it would present a "horrible, horrible predicament."
But DeGise said there are no good alternatives for work on a bridge that was built with the same truss construction as an interstate highway span that collapsed in Minnesota several years ago, killing several motorists.

The challenge for commuters heading into the city, or even Jersey City or Hoboken, is that there are few practical alternatives.

The only other highway leading to the Holland Tunnel is the Newark Bay extension of the New Jersey Turnpike, and it often backs up several miles during morning rush hour.

Otherwise, New Jersey motorists could be expected to take local streets through Jersey City to get to the tunnel, or take the busy Lincoln Tunnel to midtown and then drive downtown. They could also drive up to the equally busy George Washington Bridge and down the crowded West Side Highway.

In perhaps as the least attractive alternative, drivers might take the overburdened Goethals Bridge to the always-packed Staten Island Expressway to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the Gowanus Expressway before finally entering Lower Manhattan through the cramped Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.

So in order to make one of the worst roads in the state, at the very least, more secure and somewhat safer; drivers will have to put up with the inconvenience of finding alternates.

Good luck with that.

Could you think of any other routes more dangerous than the Skyway?

Just to get you started...anywhere on Route 280 especially the ramp from Route 21 to eastbound 280 just before the Stickle Drawbridge.

Anywhere on 287!

The ramp leading off the Southbound Garden State Parkway at exit 120 leading to southbound Route 9, and the stretch of 9 between the Parkway and Perrine Road.