The U.S. Transportation Department is spending $16 million on projects leading to replacing the century-old Portal Bridge, a key rail link along the Northeast Corridor for trains heading between New York and New Jersey.

The money is being awarded under the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, program for expenditures such as relocating utilities and building a staging area for construction materials...

..."At 105 years old, the Portal Bridge has become the poster child for what happens when we fail to invest in our aging infrastructure — major delays for thousands of commuters, lost time and money for businesses and a drain on our national and local economies," said U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

Menendez and three other New Jersey members of Congress — U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and Reps. Albio Sires (D-8th Dist.) and Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-9th Dist.) — welcomed the news on Monday. NJ Transit officials also praised the grant as a good start.

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