The one curse of our business is that most of our work is fire and forget. The job shows up, it is done and then we move on to the next job. With ships this is particularly common, in one way or another we are involved in the construction of a ship, it is built, it hits the trade and 30 years or so later we wonder what happened to the ship, only to discover it has been scrapped.
Just about any marine project takes that route. Even loadouts tend to go that way. There is some special cargo that needs to move, we design the loadout or assist in shipping it, and if it arrives without problems, it is the last time we think about it.
The only exception is infrastructure cargo and scattered across the US there are a number of infrastructure components that will outlive those who worked on it at M&O.
Many of those components are sort of hidden, tunnel segments in Norfolk, or a fancy Navy dock gate that was installed in Portsmouth. I don’t think we ever saw the gate in Portsmouth again. Occasionally when I am in Norfolk, I feel a little satisfaction in driving through the tunnel, but visually it does not really stand out.
Bridges are different though. Last year we were warranty surveyors for the Portal Bridge project over the Hackensack River.
Our job was to represent the underwriters in the transfer of three bridge spans that were assembled at Carver Marine Steel Works in Coeymans, New York, and floated down the Hudson and up the Hackensack River for installation on the abutments. These railroad bridge sections are part of the renewal of the Gateway northeast train corridor that includes a new railroad tunnel underneath the Hudson River.
The bridge replaces an old swing bridge that often malfunctioned, resulting in massive train delays, and its replacement with an elevated fixed bridge was long overdue.
The transfer of the three spans occurred during the winter of 2024/2025. I don’t remember that winter as being particularly cold, except for the days that we were at Coeymans for the loadouts.
The new Portal Bridge is clearly visible from the New Jersey Turnpike and I often think of taking a picture, but every time I have passed it, traffic has been heavy and fast, and taking out my cellphone would not be a good idea.
If things work out this summer, I plan to take Aberration up the Hackensack for a picture of the bridge from the water. I like those urban/industrial river expeditions. They tend to be trips to the far side filled with surprises.
Maybe, many years from now, one of my grandchildren will be driving me along the New Jersey Turnpike and I will say: “See that bridge Kid? I worked on the transportation of those spans from Coeymans. Damn, it was cold up there that winter.”
A little footnote. This is a picture of the early 1912 railroad feeders to New York City.
The old and new Portal Bridges are located at the river next to the “T” of “Pennsylvania Tunnel”.
Before the tunnel, there were no Hudson River train crossings and New York City was served by the Penn Terminal in Jersey City, and passengers and cargo would cross by ferry to Manhattan.
That ferry connection was removed in the 1960’s and only the tunnel remained to allow train travel to Manhattan from all states South and West. Recently over 400 trains per day pass through the tunnel. Due to overloading of the tunnel, train service at the Hoboken railroad terminal was restored as part of the 1980’s New York Harbor ferry revival. Repair and renewal studies for tunnel started in 1995, but the project has been repeatedly politically sabotaged; as recently as last year. We love infrastructure loadouts but consider ourselves lucky we are not involved in railroad project planning. Fixing things with ferries is faster.
