Outbound Holland Tunnel to close most overnights through 2025
Traffic waiting to enter the Holland Tunnel in Manhattan in 2017. The Jersey-bound side will be closed most overnights starting in February. Credit: Charles Eckert
Starting in February, the New Jersey-bound Holland Tunnel will be partially closed for nearly three years for repairs caused by Superstorm Sandy.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said the New Jersey-bound north tube will be shut for six overnights during the week starting on Feb. 5 from 11 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. The closures are expected through 2025.
During those times, drivers are advised to take alternate routes such as the George Washington Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel or the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
Similar storm resiliency repairs that first closed the tunnel’s New York-bound south tube in April 2020 will end at 5 a.m. on Feb. 4.
The 1.6 mile-long tunnel suffered extensive damage when it was flooded by 30 million gallons of brackish water during the 2012 storm.
Salt remaining from water that seeped into the New Jersey portals and ventilation buildings affected the mechanical, electrical, communications and plumbing systems.
The closures are necessary to address “critical work” to infrastructure, including repairs or replacement of safety walks and walls, curb drainage, structural steel, wall tiles, granite block retaining walls in the New Jersey portals, exhaust ducts, and fire detection systems, the agency said in a release.
The project also includes flood mitigation measures, such as flexible wall barriers at the tunnel's exit and entrance, a removable flood barrier system and concrete flood walls around the New Jersey administrative building.
The $364.2 million project to rehab the tunnel was initially announced in 2018.
