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With New Jersey’s road construction shutdown having hit the 40-day mark on Aug. 17 and no end to the budget impasse between Republican Gov. Chris Christie and the Democratic-dominated Legislature, Christie issued an executive order that commanded the state treasurer to free funds to cover “essential” road and rail work and those which require a state match of federal dollars.

New Jersey’s Democratic-controlled Senate Budget Committee passed a transportation funding measure July 29, but the chamber’s leaders declined to bring the bill to the floor Aug. 1.

The transportation committees of the New Jersey Assembly and Senate overwhelmingly passed 10-year, $23 billion bills that would bolster the state’s Transportation Trust Fund. The full chambers must vote on the measures before the fund’s borrowing authority expires July 1.

Less than a week after Gov. Christie termed the state’s Transportation Trust Fund “obsolete,” New Jersey legislative leaders are pushing a 10-year, $23 billion infrastructure plan that’s largely funded by a 26 cents-per-gallon tax hike on diesel and 23 cents-per-gallon on gas.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced a nearly two-year delay in completing a $1.3 billion bridge raising project that would allow the largest containerships to reach the third-largest U.S. port.