By Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
In New Jersey environmental news today, four companies got a green light from the Port Authority Wednesday to draft proposals to replace the old Newark Liberty International Airport monorail with a “21st Century Air Train,” with a goal of starting construction in mid-2022.
Officials, including Gov. Phil Murphy, called it a significant step in honoring the authority’s October 2019 commitment to the governor after he called for a $2 billion replacement of the 25-year old monorail that connects the airport terminals and the Northeast Corridor rail line.
The four groups selected are consortiums of major construction companies, transit equipment builders and engineering companies.
“I am pleased that the Port Authority is moving forward with this critical development,” Murphy said in a statement. “This Request for Proposals is one of the initial milestones for this project to become a reality.”
The basic concept would replace the monorail with a new 2.5-mile elevated rail link that authority officials called a “critical component of the modernization” of Newark Liberty. It would serve the new Terminal One, which will replace Terminal A and a future replacement for Terminal B.
The four teams were qualified after a thorough technical review that included financial capability and past project experience, among other factors, officials said. The shortlisted candidates advance to the Request for Proposals phase.
The projected mid-2022 construction start is slightly off the schedule in February’s draft environmental assessment report that called for a first-quarter 2022 construction start with testing of the new system in the first quarter of 2025. Under that schedule, AirTrain would go in service in the first quarter of 2026 and the old monorail would be demolished.
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