The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reopened the rebuilt South Walk on the George Washington Bridge on Oct. 15, closing out the eighth of 11 projects in its $2 billion Restoring the George program. The pedestrian path had been shut since February 2023 so crews could replace the bridge’s suspender ropes from beneath it.
Skanska did the work under its $452 million suspender rope contract, the largest piece of a program that started in 2013. Two phases are still under way and one more is planned, Construction Dive reported. Neither the agency nor the contractor has published finish dates for them.
What the South Walk rebuild involved
Rope replacement started in September 2018 and wrapped in March 2025, with all 592 original suspenders swapped while the bridge stayed open. Skanska USA Civil’s David Murawski told Construction Dive the anchor points sat below the sidewalk, so crews tore out the walkway first and rebuilt it afterward. The team hung custom work platforms from the main cable and built hoisting systems that kept traffic moving.
The new path runs about 1.5 miles. Approaches are up to 14 feet wide with grades of 5% or less, which meets current accessibility standards. There’s a new viewing platform at the Manhattan entrance near West 178th Street and a bigger plaza on the New Jersey side along Hudson Terrace, ROI-NJ reported. Pedestrians get the South Walk. Cyclists keep the North Walk, which logged more than 637,000 trips in 2025 while it carried everyone.
Skanska isn’t finished. Murawski said crews will spend several more months removing temporary conduit and completing electrical work.
The Restoring the George projects still open
Other recent completions include new finger joints and 32 deck panels at the towers, this year’s upper-level eastbound repaving and ramp work at 178th and 179th streets. Still in progress are rehabilitation of the Center Avenue and Lemoine Avenue bridges, lower-level steel work and replacement of the movable maintenance platforms. The final planned package covers six bridges over the Trans-Manhattan Expressway, from Fort Washington Avenue to Amsterdam Avenue.
What’s next for the bridge program
Thirteen years in, the program’s remaining work is the hard-to-stage kind. Lower-level steel rehab and the expressway overpasses both sit over live traffic in dense neighborhoods, on a crossing the Port Authority bills as the world’s busiest for vehicles. Those packages, not the main span, will set the program’s final schedule.
For contractors tracking Northeast bridge work, the GWB joins a long list of big rehabs, including the Ben Franklin Bridge suspension span in Philadelphia. Few crews have replaced suspender ropes on a live bridge. Skanska’s will be free within months.