Driscoll Bridge

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The Driscoll Bridge is a bridge on the Garden State Parkway in the U.S. state of New Jersey spanning the Raritan River near its mouth in Raritan Bay. The bridge connects the Middlesex County communities of Woodbridge Township on the north with Sayreville on the south.

The northbound lanes of the bridge were opened to the public without fanfare on July 30, 1954.^[1] The bridge was formally renamed in 1974 for former Governor of New Jersey Alfred E. Driscoll, who advocated for and oversaw the construction of the Garden State Parkway, as well as for the New Jersey Turnpike.^[2]

The original span was built with two lanes in each direction. A second span was added in 1972, with each span serving five lanes of traffic.^[2]

The bridge has very narrow lanes which creates traffic bottlenecks for miles in each direction on the Garden State Parkway. The bridge is currently being widened. The original configuration was four twelve-foot lanes with shoulders. This was then widened to the current width, probably originally eight twelve-foot lanes with shoulders. The shoulders on each side were then converted to travel lanes, resulting in a total of ten twelve-foot lanes. Finally, the bridge was restriped to have twelve ten-foot lanes, six in each direction. The speed limit on the Garden State Parkway is 45 mph between Milepost 126.7 and 127.7, approaching and traversing the Driscoll Bridge.^[3]

Once the new southbound span is fully open, and the current span is reconstructed, the new span will have seven southbound lanes and the current span will have eight northbound lanes, separated between through traffic and traffic exiting at Exit 127. The new southbound bridge opened to traffic on May 3, 2006, bringing to an end this part of the construction project, which started on September 25, 2002.^[4] Once reconstruction is complete on the northbound bridge, the Driscoll Bridge will be the world's largest bridge, in terms of total number of travel lanes (15 total).

The bridge levies a toll of 70 cents on southbound motorists. This toll is not for the bridge itself but rather a toll for driving on the Garden State Parkway; however, any southbound motorist that uses the bridge will pass through this toll plaza, as there are no southbound exits between the bridge and the plaza. Until mid-2004, the toll was 35 cents each way; this, along with many other Parkway toll plazas, have been converted to one-way in an effort to reduce traffic congestion.

[edit] See also

List of crossings of the Raritan River

[edit] References

^ "NEW GARDEN STATE LINK; Raritan Bridge Is Opened for Northbound Traffic", The New York Times, July 31, 1954. p. 15.
^ ^a ^b Next phase of Driscoll Bridge plan set to start, The Star-Ledger, March 22, 2007. "The original bridge was built in 1955 with two lanes in each direction, but in 1972, with Shore traffic increasing rapidly, a second span was built that created a bridge with five lanes in each direction. In 1974, former Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll was on hand as a plaque was unveiled officially renaming the bridge for him. Driscoll was governor from 1947 to 1954 and ordered construction of both the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway."
^ New Jersey Turnpike Authority Regulations Relating to the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, Effective December 9, 2004 (PDF), accessed July 5, 2006
^ Bridge to open fully on Wednesday - Project completed ahead of schedule, Asbury Park Press, May 2, 2006