Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton announced Monday he will retire from the agency in January.

Cotton has served as the head of the Port Authority since August 2017, making him the longest-tenured leader of the agency since the 1940s.

A successor has not yet been named.

In a statement, Cotton said: "Since 2017, I have devoted all my energy to this profoundly important work. It has been enormously rewarding — and exhausting. But nothing is forever. With the immense progress that we have made and the completion last week of our proposed new 10-year capital plan — which will fund the agency’s ambitious agenda through 2035 — it is simply time to hand over the reins, and I will do so in January."

The Port Authority said Cotton and chairman Kevin O'Toole have delivered "an unprece

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