Newark Airport’s New Terminal A Opening and AirTrain Replacement Both Facing Delays

Opening of two signature projects at Newark Liberty Airport, the new Terminal A and replacement of the aging monorail, are facing setbacks, Port Authority officials confirmed Thursday.

Completion of the new Terminal A has been delayed until the end of the year and replacement of the aging monorail is off its proposed schedule, Port Authority said.

This is the third delay in opening the first phase of the $2.7 billion replacement of the aging original Terminal A. Construction started construction in 2018.

“We expect the new terminal will open before the end of the year,” said Scott Ladd, a spokesperson.

Supply chain problems are one of the reasons, and the first phase of the new terminal is “more than 90% complete,” said Kevin O’Toole, board chairman, responding to NJ Advance Media questions Thursday.

The first phase of the 1-million square-foot replacement for the existing Terminal A was originally scheduled to open in late 2021, a date that was pushed back after the COVID pandemic to spring 2022 and then to summer.

“We’re having delays because of supply chain issues, COVID issues and with a number of elements,” O’Toole said. “It’s coming along beautifully, but we’re not going to open prematurely, not without all the systems tested.”

The 33-gate terminal always has been scheduled to open in two phases, the first being the main terminal and its 21 gates, and the second phase which would open 12 more gates roughly 12 months after the opening of the main building, said Rick Cotton, executive director.

“That’s always been the plan,” said Cotton, who participated in the board meeting and post meeting press conference remotely. Cotton said he tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday and was in isolation.

Cotton and other senior staff had been on the site weekly to keep tabs on construction O’Toole said.

“When it opens, which you’ll hear about before the end of the year, everyone will be astonished and amazed at what a wonderful asset it is,” O’Toole said.

The last pieces of structural steel for the new terminal were hoisted in to place in October 2019 during a topping off ceremony attended by Gov. Phil Murphy. By late July 2020, construction crews were racing to enclose the building so work on interior electrical, heating lighting and other work could continue during the winter.

Also dealt a setback was a companion project to replace the 26-year-old monorail rail system that links the airport terminals and the Northeast Corridor rail line.

The authority missed a July 28 date to select a joint venture from four companies that were qualified in 2021 by the agency to submit design proposals to build and operate the AirTrain for 30 years.

Bids to build and operate the replacement came in “higher than expected,” O’Toole said

“We will see what we can do to make it more competitive to replace the AirTrain,” he said. “You’ll hear about that in the very near future. It will get done.”

The authority started discussing the monorail’s replacement in 2015. Built for $354 million in 1996, it carried 33,000 people a day in 2019.

Plans had called call for construction of the AirTrain to begin in the first quarter of 2022, with testing of the new system in the first quarter of 2025. It would go in service in the first quarter of 2026 and the old monorail would be demolished.

Authority officials pledged to replace the aging and under capacity monorail after Murphy called for a $2 billion replacement of the monorail.

Authority officials added the AirTrain to the agency’s 2017-2026 Capital Plan during a reassessment of it in late 2019. In 2021, the project’s mid-2022 construction start was slightly off the schedule that appeared in February’s draft environmental assessment report.

Port Authority officials said in May 2021 that the process was delayed, partly due to financial pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

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.

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Larry Higgs may be reached at [email protected].

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