New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and the Port Authority on Friday announced a closed runway at Newark Liberty International Airport will reopen 13 days ahead of schedule, allowing regular runway operations to resume Monday.

The planned rehabilitation work was required for Runway 4L-22R to meet Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety standards for runways. 

Since FAA staffing and operational challenges limited air traffic controllers’ ability to effectively use the remaining two operational runways during the closure, the Port Authority accelerated the construction schedule by bringing in additional crews, expanding shifts and enabling construction 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“I commend the crews who have worked tirelessly to get this critical project done ahead of schedule,” said Gov. Phil Murphy. “I’m grateful for New Jersey’s partnership with the Port Authority and the FAA as we work to return to full capacity at Newark Airport. New Jersey will do all we can to support plans from the [U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)] to invest in modernizing our air traffic control system and fully staffing our air traffic controllers.”

NEWARK AIRPORT DISRUPTIONS LEAVE AIRLINE FLYERS SCRAMBLING AS EXPERTS SHARE TIPS FOR NOT BEING ‘STRANDED’

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said as airports approach the busy summer travel season, the additional runway is a “key milestone” that puts the Department of Transportation on a path to further reducing congestion, enhancing safety and ensuring a seamless travel experience. 

“With the runway completed, we’ll continue our work to harden the telecoms infrastructure and improving the staffing pipeline for the airspace,” Duffy wrote in a statement.

In an interview with Fox News’ Steve Doocy Friday, Duffy gave a rundown of what he thinks are the major issues causing nationwide delays and cancellations.

“So, listen, what’s happening is we have weather. It happens at this time of year, No. 1. No. 2, we have a limited amount of controllers with 3,000 short nationally. And then, specifically in Newark, we have our runway that’s been shut down.”

LAWMAKERS REACT TO NEWARK AIRPORT CHAOS: ‘YOUR FAMILY DESERVES TO KNOW YOU’LL BE SAFE’

Runway 4L-22R, which is 11,000 feet long, was last renovated in 2014 and was showing significant signs of wear. Runways are typically repaved every 10 years.

The $121 million construction project began in early March and required runway closures on weeknights and weekends, followed by a full 24/7 closure that started April 15, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

Though the full runway closure was the most disruptive stage of the project, closures will continue on weeknights through December, and on weekends, September through December, to fully complete the rehabilitation project by the end of this year, according to the release.

Two remaining runways, 4R-22L and 11-29, remain available for use throughout the closure periods, pending weather disruptions.

A United plane is parked at the gate at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J., May 7, 2025. (Kena Betancur/AFP)

Duffy noted that while it can be frustrating for air travelers to have their flights delayed or canceled, the DOT’s top priority remains ensuring passenger safety.

“Whether it’s weather, we might have some shortages of air traffic controllers. You know that we had telecom issues in Philadelphia, or in Newark, out of the Philly TRACON. So those factors all come into play. And the key is your safety,” Duffy said. 

“A lot of the questions that come though — is it safe to fly? And of course it is. We have so many redundancies in place, but we have to fix the system.”

The transportation secretary then dove into the details of how he predicts departures out of Newark Airport will improve after the runway and other improvements are complete.

“So 28 departures an hour. It used to be 50-54,” he claimed. “So when the runway opens, we’ll get to 34.”

Duffy revealed he has offered retirement-age air traffic controllers special incentives to keep experienced workers on the job and improve efficiency.  (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.; Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Another issue plaguing Newark Airport, according to Duffy, is the fact that new air traffic controllers from other airspaces can’t simply be brought in to alleviate the shortage. They must first be trained in Newark’s airspace.

Duffy said there are 16 air traffic controllers in training at Newark, and that it typically takes six months to a year to become certified in a new airspace.

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“Again, I can’t just snap my fingers and fix the problems that Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden left for me,” he said.

After being asked by Doocy about another issue facing the air traffic controller industry – the large numbers of controllers retiring – Duffy laid out his plan for incentivizing retirement-age controllers to stay on the job.

“Air traffic controllers can retire after 25 years of service. I’ve offered them a 20% upfront bonus to stay on after their eligible date of retirement,” he said. “This is a government job where you are paid very well. So, to give them that bonus, I think it matters.”

Duffy said his goal is to keep experienced controllers while also expanding the pipeline to get more young people into the FAA Academy and working in the industry.

Tiki time

If you want to send a signal to yourself that it’s time for a bit of carefree fun, order a drink in a kitschy mug shaped like a skull or a coconut, loaded with fruit juice and rum and orchids and paper umbrellas. That will do the trick. For a drink and some sushi (and a roster of Pride events this month), Shore Leave in the South End is your destination. Others to try: pupu platter palace Wusong Road in Harvard Square and, when you find yourself on the Cape, Aplaya Kitchen + Tiki Bar, serving Filipino food in a lush garden in Chatham.

Aplaya Kitchen + Tiki Bar, 483 Main St., Chatham, 508-348-5132, www.aplayacapecod.com. Shore Leave, 11 William E. Mullins Way, South End, Boston, 617-530-1775, www.shoreleaveboston.com. Wusong Road, 112 Mt. Auburn St., Harvard Square, Cambridge, 617-528-9125, www.wusongroad.com.

Continental mental vacation

A trip to Europe would be lovely, but if it’s not in the budget (or you’ve been posting things on social media that might make customs agents vewy vewy angwy), skip the jetlag and do dinner instead. Try Salem bistro Bernadette, for well-dressed salads, mussels, roast chicken, and Frenchy desserts like Paris-Brest and vacherin. For a bit of Barcelona, Beacon Hill’s Zurito specializes in Basque-style tapas: You can have all the jamon your heart desires. Or visit Italy at Osteria Vivo in Pembroke, where you can eat wagyu carpaccio, miso arancini, cacio e pepe, and lobster and oxtail bolognese. (It’s right near Poopsie’s, famous for its South Shore-style bar pizza, if you want to take some pies home for later.)

Bernadette, 65 Washington St., Salem, 978-224-2976, www.bernadettesalem.com. Osteria Vivo, 254 Church St., Pembroke, 781-924-1315, www.osteriavivo.com. Zurito, 26 Charles St., Beacon Hill, Boston, 857-305-3177, www.zuritoboston.com.

Lunch by the water

If you didn’t have a lobster roll, did you even summer? At Little Harbor Lobster Company, a waterfront seafood market in Marblehead, order up their excellent version (⅓ pound of meat, with mayo or drawn butter) and eat it overlooking the harbor. The tiny-and-mighty Mae’s Sandwich Shop serves up excellent baked goods and sandwiches to write home about, right across the street from the ocean. Try the Mae Day (roasted veggies, feta, and romesco) or the Uncle Stevie (roast beef with roasted shallots, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and black pepper mayo), both on fresh house-made focaccia. If you’re looking to sit down in style, the Nautilus is a little taste of Nantucket in the Seaport; lunch is served on Saturday and Sunday. A little midday poke and rosé? How civilized could you be?

Little Harbor Lobster Company, 3 Beacon St., Marblehead, 781-639-1961, www.littleharborlobster.com. Mae’s Sandwich Shop, 563 Ocean St., Marshfield, 781-319-2726, www.maesmarshfield.com. The Nautilus, 300 Pier 4 Boulevard, Seaport, Boston, 857-957-0998, www.thenautilus.com.

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Date night

Bring your loved one to Comfort Kitchen for a tasting tour of the spice routes — via brown butter okra with masala-spiced yogurt, jerk roast duck, goat ragu and cassava gnudi, and excellent drinks to match. Field & Vine makes the most of New England ingredients in dishes such as tautog ceviche with smoked sweet potato, crispy potato cakes with melted leeks, and Wellfleet clams with green crab curry and house-made focaccia. The latest restaurant from Xenia Greek Hospitality, Kaia focuses on the Aegean coast: Try sea urchin terrine, tuna crudo, mushroom souvlaki, or grilled whole fish. Each spot has a great — and different — date-night vibe.

Comfort Kitchen, 611 Columbia Road, Dorchester, 617-329-6910, www.comfortkitchenbos.com. Field & Vine, 9 Sanborn Court, Somerville, 617-718-2333, www.fieldandvinesomerville.com. Kaia, 370 Harrison Ave., South End, Boston, 617-514-0700, www.kaiasouthend.com.

Out with friends

It’s roof deck season at Cunard Tavern by the East Boston waterfront, and James Beard award-winning chef Tony Messina is serving up scallion pancake pizza with spicy vodka sauce and burrata, lobster poutine, crispy chicken sandwiches with kimchi pimento cheese, and more. El Tacuba keeps you and your pals in margaritas and Mexican fare (queso fundido and guac, ceviche, all manner of tacos) all summer long. Lulu Green makes plant-based brunching an art (dinnering too): Come for huevos rojos and pancakes, seitan shawarma bowls and house burgers on pretzel buns, Korean-style lettuce wraps and mushroom “short ribs,” plus chocolate chip cookies, apple pie, and all the fun drinks you want to drink. (In addition to the South Boston flagship, there’s now a branch at Time Out Market in the Fenway.)

Cunard Tavern, 24 Orleans St., East Boston, 617-567-7609, www.cunardtavern.com. El Tacuba, 35 Salem St., Medford, 617-390-0600, www.eltacuba.com. Lulu Green, 246 W. Broadway, South Boston, 617-420-4070, www.lulugreen.com.

Day trip, brought to you by dinner

Sometimes the whole day comes together around what you want to eat later. Take a Thursday off of work, book a tasting menu at Lune in Dennis Port, and head out early to enjoy the day on a gorgeous beach; after dinner, shoot back home to Boston. You visited the Cape during peak season and skipped the traffic. Nicely done. (Lune’s tasting menus are available Thursday-Saturday with 5:30 and 8 p.m. seatings; an a la carte menu is offered Wednesday and Sunday.) Or head to Duxbury and spend the afternoon at Island Creek’s delightful raw bar by the water. Play lawn games, enjoy the scene, and suck down fresh oysters, caviar, and more. You can also book a farm tour. For dinner, head to sister restaurant the Winsor House for stylish fare, and more oysters, of course. (If you want to skip the day trip, there’s now a temporary Island Creek Raw Bar in the Seaport.) Gloucester sushi chef Sang Hyun Lee recently became a champion on cooking show “Chopped.” Visit his Sushi Sang Lee for beautiful omakase menus created with seafood from nearby waters. Or, earlier in the day, get a bento box to go and eat on the beach.

Lune, 587 Main St., Dennis Port, 508-237-6597, www.lunecapecod.com. Island Creek Raw Bar, 403 Washington St., Duxbury, and 99 Autumn Lane, Seaport, Boston, 781-934-2028; the Winsor House, 390 Washington St., Duxbury, 781-934-0991; shop.islandcreekoysters.com. Sushi Sang Lee, 76 Prospect St., Rear Suite, Gloucester, 978-381-3818, www.sushisanglee.com.

Devra First can be reached at devra.first@globe.com. Follow her on Instagram @devrafirst.

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers took the field on Tuesday for their fourth OTAs practice, and with most of the roster in attendance, it continued a spirited first week of practices.

So, with that in mind, what did we learn from the fourth day of OTAs?

Cory Trice has Ja’Marr Chase on the mind

Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Cory Trice isn’t worried about his weight or frame as long as he still feels he can run, and he sure does, but Trice is concerned about the last extended tape he put out there.

For Trice, that was against Ja’Marr Chase of the Cincinnati Bengals. Trice allowed a touchdown to Chase and had a rough go of things, especially early in the game. Eventually, Trice settled into his own and put up a solid effort for someone playing man coverage against Chase in his first start.

However, Trice wants to get another shot at Chase at some point in his career, whenever that is, because he does not want the same mistakes to happen again. That game fueled his entire offseason. Trice says he has watched it ten times.

“That’s all I’ve been thinking about,” Trice said. “Because that was my last game out. I just don’t want anybody to really just think of me as that last game because I’m way better than that. It stung a little bit. I’m still feeling it right now. That’s really kind of my motivation going into next year. Just make sure I don’t put no tape out there like that again.”

Chase’s final stat line in that game was ten receptions for 96 yards and a touchdown, with most of that coming against Trice. Some coaches even applauded Trice for his performance, given how he stepped up in a tough spot, but that is not enough for the third-year cornerback out of Purdue.

“I don’t think (coaches) was upset. Everybody, they actually was saying I did a good job and stuff like that,” Trice said. “For me, I’m used to letting up nothing, so I was upset. I was really hard on myself. I done watched that game already like 10 times.”

Trice says after that game, he learned to trust himself without apprehension.

“I just learned to trust myself,” Trice said. “I need to trust what I see and everything the coaches showed me.”

Kaleb Johnson gets drilled

Steelers running backs coach Eddie Faulkner is not letting rookie running back Kaleb Johnson off the hook easily. Pass protection is a real issue for Johnson, who says the technique and getting everything to work together is new to him.

“I feel like it’s very new because at Iowa I was really not like really not focused on technique, but it really wasn’t bringing the hips. It was really strike, hit, make sure the quarterback’s cool to make a throw. But now it’s more here, it’s more technique, it’s more formative and stuff like that here. So I’m just gotta get my stuff down, so that’s why I’m here to work,” Johnson said.

At one point, Johnson said there were only five minutes left in the individual period, and Faulkner told him he would have to go through the pass protection gauntlet as often as possible until he got everything correct on two straight reps.

That motivated Johnson, who said asking detail-oriented questions comes naturally to him.

“That motivated me because that’s what I wanna do, you know what I’m saying? I wanna get better, I wanna be one of the best out here. So I’m just gonna keep striving to do my great and keep learning from the vets, like Jonathan Ward and Jaylen Waren,” Johnson said.

If Johnson is going to get on the field early, pass protection will be a big part of his growth to do that. For now, he will at least play a lot on early downs, but the Steelers must see him leap as a pass protector before they can trust him as a three-down workhorse.

Minkah talks communication

Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick made it clear as day that if players do not communicate this year, they will not be here very long. In Fitzpatrick’s words, the Steelers need to cut out all the ‘gray’ that might creep him in, and any signals that are sent out need to be reciprocated back so the team knows they are on the same page.

New defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander is not accepting mediocrity from the team regarding their nonverbal communication, an area in which they faltered in 2024.

“Leave no gray. Football, I think, should be black and white, in regards to execution and schematics. There should be no gray,” Fitzpatrick said. “It should be this is how we’re doing it, this is how we’re going to communicate. If I give you a thumbs up, you give me a thumbs up back. If I give you a thumbs down, you give me a thumbs down back. It’s as simple as that. So when guys aren’t doing it or establishing this is what we’re doing, if you don’t want to do it, you ain’t going to be here. You’re not going to be on the field. Really pressing down and instilling that in everybody.”

That will be huge for the Steelers this year if they are going to regain form defensively. As for Fitzpatrick, getting turnovers from him would be a huge boost, and he confirmed he did just that on Tuesday. In the team’s seven shots, Fitzpatrick jumped a ball for an interception after dropping one earlier.

“I dropped one today,” Fitzpatrick said. “Luckily, I made up for it, but I dropped one earlier today. So it was just getting extra work.”

The Steelers’ superstar safety is one of the key cogs to making their defense go from just good to one of the NFL’s elite, and they got a good sign on Tuesday.

Cole Holcomb is back

After a gruesome knee injury 18 months ago, Steelers linebacker Cole Holcomb is back and ready to go. It took Holcomb a long time to even get to a point where doctors would clear him, but he did touch the practice field last year before the season ended.

Holcomb was even ready to suit up in the playoffs if the Steelers needed him to, even though he would tell you himself that was not the best idea.

“I felt good, but it probably wouldn’t have been the best idea,” Holcomb said. “But I felt ready if they needed me. If they needed me, I would have been ready, but everyone stayed healthy.”

At one point. Holcomb thought he would never return to the field, and admitted he had contemplated retirement.

“It was a serious injury,” Holcomb said. “You all saw it. It was pretty gruesome. They were emphasizing how important the rehab was going to be. If guys don’t take it serious and don’t put the work in, they won’t make it back. If you put the work in, you do the extra stuff, you come every day no matter how bad you don’t want to, you can come back from this.”

Holcomb slots in as the top reserve linebacker in the Steelers’ defense, a role that is a step back from him when he last played as the team’s green dot. Yet, the Steelers have a quality backup in Holcomb to lean on if things go haywire this season.

“Looking back, you never know,” he said. “One play can end your season. You take stuff for granted. Now I’m soaking it up, enjoying it and having fun out there. I’ve been working hard to come back. It’s been a long road, and I feel like I’m picking up where I left off.”

Other Notes

1. Daniel Ekuale seems extremely amped up to join the Steelers. The Samoan-born defensive lineman idolized Troy Polamalu. Right now, he says his strength is run defense, and the Steelers have told him to be ready to play anywhere, from nose tackle to 4i.
2. Calvin Austin III told me he sees rookie quarterback Will Howard soaking in all the reps just from afar. From his point of view, he has seen things slow down for the rookie over four days.
3. Jaylen Warren says he is ready to take on as much of a load as the team needs, though he admitted he does not expect it to be that much, considering Johnson and Kenneth Gainwell are in the building. He probably still projects as the lead running back, but Johnson and Gainwell will play a lot.
4. With the injury to Donald Parham, this is a big chance for undrafted free agents DJ Thomas-Jones and J.J. Galbreath. Thomas-Jones has come along quicker than I thought he would as a pure receiver. Have a nice day.
5. Jonathan Ward is the underappreciated running back in the Steelers’ room. He is rock solid in the dirty things, such as pass protection and special teams. He might not make the roster, but he is virtually a practice squad lock.