By Elise Young, Bloomberg; March 15, 2019
Thousands of riders sometimes stranded by the mechanical fits of a 108-year-old New York City-area rail bridge are about to get some relief. Sledgehammer-wielding crews still will have to smack its wayward components to keep it from sticking open. But the bridge will stay closed during peak commuting times.
The Portal Bridge, spanning the Hackensack River in New Jersey’s meadowlands between Kearny and Secaucus, swings open for marine traffic and then closes for 454 daily Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains. For years, the bridge has acted up in extreme weather as temperature variations temporarily alter the fit of moving parts.