Carries G.S. Parkway Opened 30 July 1954 Bridge type Box girder bridge Architect David B. Steinman | Clearance below 41 m | |
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Toll $1.50 (Southbound only) Similar Edison Bridge, Victory Bridge, Basilone Memorial Bridge, Nevius Street Bridge, Donald and Morris Goodkind | ||
The Driscoll Bridge is a toll bridge (a series of three spans) on the Garden State Parkway in the U.S. state of New Jersey spanning the Raritan River near its mouth in Raritan Bay. The bridge connects the Middlesex County communities of Woodbridge Township on the north with Sayreville on the south. With a total of 15 travel lanes and 6 shoulder lanes, it is the widest motor vehicle bridge in the world by number of lanes and one of the world's busiest.
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History
The northbound lanes of the bridge were opened to the public without fanfare on July 30, 1954. The bridge was formally renamed in 1974 for former Governor Alfred E. Driscoll, who advocated for and oversaw the construction of the Garden State Parkway, as well as for the New Jersey Turnpike.
The original span was built with two lanes in each direction. A second span was added in 1972, with each span serving five lanes of traffic.
The bridge had very narrow lanes which created traffic bottlenecks for miles in each direction on the Garden State Parkway, until it was widened. The original configuration was four twelve-foot lanes with shoulders. This was then widened to eight twelve-foot lanes with shoulders. The shoulders on each side were then converted to travel lanes, resulting in a total of ten twelve-foot lanes. Finally, the bridge was restriped to have twelve ten-foot lanes, six in each direction. The speed limit on the Garden State Parkway is 45 mph between Milepost 126.7 and 127.7, approaching and traversing the Driscoll Bridge.
Once the new southbound span was fully opened, and the old span reconstructed, the new span featured seven southbound lanes and the original span had eight northbound lanes, separated between through traffic and traffic exiting at Exit 127. The new southbound bridge opened to traffic on May 3, 2006, bringing to an end this part of the construction project, which started on September 25, 2002.
On May 20, 2009, the Driscoll Bridge project was completed. The new configuration has seven southbound lanes on the newly constructed span, and the original span has eight northbound lanes, carries northbound traffic only. The northbound span is also divided, with four lanes on each side. The left side of the northbound span contains four express route lanes going through traffic for Parkway North over the bridge, and the right side of the northbound span contains three right lanes going into Exit 127 of the Parkway and one express route lane going through traffic for Parkway North over the bridge. The Driscoll Bridge is now the world's widest bridge, in terms of total number of travel lanes (15 total).
The toll charged for this bridge (due south) is not for the bridge itself but rather a toll for driving on the Garden State Parkway; however, any southbound motorist that uses the bridge will pass through this toll plaza, as there are no southbound exits between the bridge and the plaza. The toll was 35 cents each way until September 2004 when it was doubled from 35 to 70 cents for southbound cars only. Then the toll was increased to $1.00 from December 2008 to December 2011 (first phase of the toll increase) and then it was increased to $1.50 on January 2012 to present (second phase of the toll increase) to southbound traffic after passing the bridge. This along with many other Parkway toll plazas, have been converted to one-way in an effort to reduce traffic congestion.
Murder on the bridge
On February 17, 2010, Shamshiddin Abdur-Raheem allegedly murdered his daughter by throwing her off the bridge. The body of an infant matching the girl's description was found on the south bank of the Raritan River on April 24 and was later identified as the missing girl through DNA testing.