I'm not directly involved with the contract that's building that bridge, but they have their work cut out for them. There are a lot of tests that need to be passed before the bridge is officially accepted by the state. It could be done in a few months, or over a year, it's really hard to say.

I don't have a good answer for that one. I do know that there will be no sidewalk on the north side (except for a small section for the bridge operators). I'm pretty sure the current design has no plan for a bike lane. Usually bike lanes get added to the shoulder, so if there isn't one at completion there might be one down the line.

Lol that's a delicate subject. The bridge itself is beautiful, and I am excited to take responsibility for it when the construction contract is done. That being said, there were many decisions made during design that us maintenance guys were not happy about. Either way, it will be a vast improvement from the old Wittpenn bridge.

On paper this bridge could be operated by one individual, but in reality it's a 2-4 person job. Since this road is so busy, and this bridge is so old, roadway issues, electrical, and mechanical malfunctions are not uncommon, and troubleshooting such a large structure is always easier with more people. The call out time operation / notification system you're talking about is a neat idea that I've seen used in other states. Unfortunately the gears of government grind very slowly. It was a two-year effort to change this bridge to a 2-hour call out time from 11pm to 7am. Right now, marine pilots just aren't required to call ahead, so they don't.

I was not, but my whole team exists largely in part due to the '05 tragedy. Since '05 an enormous amount of time and money has been invested in these bridges and their safety systems. It's a little too complicated to explain here (and would probably be a breach of security) but the safety interlock systems on these bridges today are extreme robust compared to those of '05.

It actually ties back to US Coast Guard and maritime law. For the last 100 years or so it was determined that boats had the right-of-way because they existed first, plus it can take a literal mile to stop a full sized tanker.
However, we recently had a meeting with one of the USCG district commanders and this rule is in the process of changing, largely because of the reasons you mentioned.
We do have black out time for testing/maintenance openings during rush hour, but boats can still technically request an opening during rush hour. It's a pain for us too.

Some time, but a little extra lubricant get this 68 year old standing tall.

Hi! I am actually a maintenance supervisor for this bridge (and all state owned movable bridges in NJ). AMA!
To answer some questions I already see: 1) This bridge opens on-call from 7am to 11pm, with a 2-hour call time between 11pm and 7am.
2) We limit traffic stops to a max of 15 minutes (over that and things get complicated), but we try to keep openings to as short as possible.
3) This time of year we average only a few boat openings a month, but with the reconstruction of the Potral bridge up-river from us we're seeing a lot more opening requests.