Twice in one week, chunks of concrete fell from a crumbling overpass onto drivers on the Trans-Manhattan Expressway — the road leading to the George Washington Bridge in Upper Manhattan. One driver was injured and taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Another, John Toledo, 61, told Gothamist his car was destroyed by a falling slab. "If I would have been one or two seconds further forward," he said, "it could have come through the windshield, and I wouldn't be speaking to you."

The George Washington Bridge is 95 years old and carries more than 100,000 cars and 10,000 trucks every single day — the busiest bridge in the United States. Drivers pay up to $23.30 per crossing, generating enormous revenue for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns and operates the bridge.

The Port Authority's response has been to install protective netting and say a $250 million overhaul is "being designed." There is no firm public timeline. Drivers who pay some of the highest tolls in the country are being asked to trust that a piece of concrete won't fall through their windshield on their morning commute.

That is not good enough. The Port Authority must accelerate the Trans-Manhattan Expressway overhaul and release a clear, public timeline for when this work will be done. Temporary netting is not a fix — it is an admission that a dangerous situation is being managed, not solved.

We are calling on the Port Authority Board of Commissioners and the governors of New York and New Jersey — who appoint its board members — to demand an emergency acceleration of the expressway overhaul and commit to a defined public schedule for completing it.

Toll payers deserve safe roads. Sign to demand the Port Authority fix the bridge now.