$2 Billion GWB Restoration Project On Tap For Veteran Port Authority Leader

The $2 billion George Washington Bridge restoration project will be overseen by a Port Authority veteran who has held key positions at the agency’s crossings, seaport and airport: Kenneth Sagrestano, who’s been with the authority 26 years, was named the new general manager of the bridge and bus station on Friday.

Kenneth Sagrestano
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: Port Authority of NY and NJ*

Jerry DeMarco

06/15/2018 11:49 a.m.

He replaces 40-year agency veteran Bob Durando, who is retiring.

Sagrestano, who lives in Easton, Pa., has helped oversee operations at the bridge, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels and the New Jersey marine terminals and was supervisor of the Environmental Maintenance Unit at LaGuardia Airport in the 1990s.

He’ll manage the day-to-day operations at the world’s busiest bridge, which handled approximately 100 million vehicles in 2017, the authority said.

Sagrestano will also will oversee the $2 billion “Restore the George” Rehabilitation Program, which includes 11 major capital projects -- including the replacement of the bridge’s 592 original suspender ropes.

Durando began his Port Authority career in 1978 as a toll collector at the George Washington Bridge and over four decades held every operational role in the Port Authority’s Tunnels, Bridges and Terminals Department. Sixteen years ago, he was named general manager of the same crossing where his career began.

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