In newly-released audio recordings of police radio communications, officers stationed at the George Washington Bridge can be heard scrambling to deal with the traffic nightmare caused by abruptly-planned lane closures that clogged Fort Lee’s streets last September.
The Port Authority officers describe motorist complaints, plead for help moving cars through gridlocked intersections, and in one case, tell a supervisor that the lane closures are a hazard.
"Sarge, this traffic pattern is just causing a dangerous condition out here," one officer, referred to as "No. 14" says, before asking that the local access lanes to the bridge from Fort Lee be re-opened. The lanes were not re-opened until four days later, after the Port Authority’s executive director found out about them and angrily reversed the decision by an ally of Governor Christie at the agency.
