The Goethals Bridge is getting a $1.5 billion replacement.
The Port Authority announced Wednesday it has formed its first public-private partnership to build a wider, bike-friendly, high-tech cable-stayed span linking Staten Island to Elizabeth, N.J.
The new Goethals, set to be completed in 2017, will be the first bridge built by the Port Authority since it opened the George Washington Bridge 80 years ago.
The transportation agency picked a private consortium led by the Kiewit Infrastructure to help design, build, maintain and finance the wider span.
PA Chairman David Samson called the new Goethals Bridge “a historic undertaking.”
Samson said the agency’s partnership with Kiewit will allow it to “leverage the private sector’s capital and expertise while freeing up valuable resources” for other projects.
“We will continue our focus on delivering these much-needed projects in innovative, safe and cost-efficient ways,” Samson said.
The public-private partnership is expected to save the PA 10% on construction and maintenance costs, the agency said.
The old cantilever bridge — named after Maj. Gen. George Washington Goethals, who supervised construction of the Panama Canal and was the PA’s first consulting engineer — will be torn down after its replacement is completed.
The 7,109-foot, four-lane span over the Arthur Kill opened in 1928 and cost $7.2 million to build.
The replacement bridge will feature six 12-foot-wide lanes, three in each direction. It will also boast wider shoulders and a 10-foot-wide bicycle and pedestrian pathway on the northern edge of the span.
The new bridge also will have high-tech systems to measure wind speed, visibility and pavement temperature and have sensors embedded in the roadway to provide traffic alerts.
Construction is set to begin later this year.
Financing for the bridge will include $100 million in equity from the private construction consortium. A $500 million federal loan, tax-exempt bonds and a bank loan will also be used to build the bridge, officials said.
The PA has agreed to pay back the loans over 40 years. The agency will continue to control the bridge and its toll, which is $13 one way.
The project is expected to create more than 2,250 construction jobs.
The PA board also approved Wednesday a $1.3 billion project to raise the Bayonne Bridge to accommodate bigger container ships.
The New York Building Congress praised the PA move to team up with the private sector on the infrastructure project.
“Such innovative partnerships with the private sector are the wave of the future, which we hope will be emulated widely in the coming years,” said Richard Anderson, president of the construction industry group.
whutchinson@nydailynews.com
