In May 2010, the Port Authority released a Request for Information from potential investment partners. This exercise gave the Port Authority an important opportunity to gain feedback from potential bidders on the availability payment P3 approach. It also enabled discussion of the challenges of building a bridge with a 135-foot vertical clearance above the Kill Van Kull to accommodate post-Panamax tankers and towers that could not exceed 272 feet in height because they lie in the flight path of Newark Liberty International Airport. An encouraging response to the RFI process led the agency to pursue the P3 DBFM path. The Port Authority issued a Request for Qualifications from potential private investment partners in October 2010 and a formal Request for Proposals to three shortlisted bidders in August 2011.
In April 2013, the Port Authority awarded the P3 contract to NYNJ Link. The limited liability concession company is a partnership of Macquarie Capital, the investment arm of an Australian Bank, and Kiewit, an American construction company. The Port Authority and NYNJ Link signed a concession agreement-a milestone known as "commercial close"-in August 2013, and the firm closed on its financing package in November 2013. Construction of the replacement bridge began in May 2014 and is anticipated to be complete by the end of 2017. The Goethals Bridge Replacement Project will be the Port Authority's first new bridge in more than 80 years and is the first transportation improvement in the northeastern U.S. to be delivered under a long-term P3 concession.