NEW YORK—The Port Authority of NY & NJ announced last week it had completed a seven-year effort to replace all 592 original suspender ropes on the George Washington Bridge, marking a major milestone in the agency’s comprehensive $2-billion rehabilitation of the world’s busiest vehicular bridge as it nears its 100th birthday.

Replacing all 592 of the bridge’s steel suspender ropes was the largest and most impactful component of the “Restoring the George” program, which includes 11 distinct projects to rehabilitate, repair or replace major components of the 94-year-old span. The major engineering feat to replace the bridge’s steel suspender ropes, which connect the bridge’s main cables to the roadway decks below, began in 2018 while the bridge remained open and operational.

Completion of the suspender rope project also enables the agency to completely rebuild both of the span’s shared use sidewalks, which are adjacent to the ropes’ connection points on the main span. During the project, one sidewalk was closed at a time to allow access to the ropes for work crews, requiring pedestrians and bicyclists to share use of the remaining open sidewalk. The completely rebuilt north sidewalk reopened after every suspender rope on that side of the bridge was replaced, while the south sidewalk was closed in February 2023. With the suspender rope project completed, the agency expects to complete work on the span’s south sidewalk and reopen the path next year. Both paths open to the public will enable significantly improved bridge access for bicyclists and pedestrians by separating use of the sidewalks to bicyclists on the north sidewalk and to pedestrians on the south sidewalk.