Governor Christie: The TTF Provides NJ With The Type Of Infrastructure We Need

Statement

The I-80 Bridge Project, which is happening right above us, is a $5 million project. This project is just one of 925 TTF projects that are going on around the state right now because of the money that we've put into rebuilding our infrastructure. Now, New Jersey's bridge deck area story is one of the better stories we have in infrastructure -- 93 percent of the bridge decks across the state are in acceptable condition, so we're using this money to focus on the 7 percent that are not. It's critical to make these improvements to make sure that there are good driving conditions all across the state for our folks. During our administration we've invested $4.4 billion in bridge rehabilitation and reconstruction, that averages about $750 million a year that we've spent on just bridge rehabilitation itself. And also, we've helped to increase the local funding, which I know the mayor is happy about, from $25 million a year to $44 million a year. So that will help the localities be able to maintain their local roads without having to increase local municipal taxes. This additional funding is going to allow them to work on bridges under their jurisdiction, roadways under their jurisdiction as well. Now this I-80 Bridge Project which goes over the Passaic River from Woodland Park to Totowa, we're implementing long-term repairs at each intermediate cross-frame connection to each steel girder on the bridge. This will transfer and reduce the load on the bridge and will maintain and prevent future stress to the structure while increasing the safety for 130,000 vehicles go over that bridge every day -- 130,000 vehicles over that 767 foot bridge every day. So, it's critically important for us to be able to make sure that that bridge operates safely first and foremost. Secondly, operates in a way which doesn't cause damages to the vehicles that go over that bridge as well, which would put increased expense on both our businesses and our local citizens who use the bridge every day. These are the projects that are the reason why I fought so hard to get the Transportation Trust Fund done and done in a way that represented tax fairness for the people of the state but also to provide us with the type of infrastructure that we need in our state going forward. The folks standing behind me are the guys who do all the hard work and them along with a lot of other folks in the private sector are doing the work that needs to be done here to make sure we do the things that we need to do with the TTF and the infrastructure in our state. So I want to thank the chief, the mayor, the folks from the DPW, folks from our local labor unions who are working real hard on these projects for being here this morning and want to just continue to keep a focus on these projects around the state and we're going to continue to do this every week to let people know all across the state how the money they're paying is going to work to improve the way they travel and commute around the state of New Jersey.

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