Platform Update

November 2008

ACTION ITEMS

TOLL ROAD WIDENING PROJECTS: The widening of New Jersey's toll roads will start early next year. The NJ Turnpike Authority plans to widen the Turnpike to 12 lanes between Exit 6 in Mansfield and Exit 9 in East Brunswick to accommodate increasing traffic. Construction is scheduled to start by March 2009. Most of the work will be outside the existing lanes, so the impact on traffic is expected to be limited. The NJTA has not acquired all the land it needs, so the widening will begin where land acquisition is not an issue. The $2.5 billion project is scheduled to be completed by early 2013.

Separate contracts will be awarded to complete the work on three segments of the Garden State Parkway. Work on the first segment, between mileposts 75 and 80, is scheduled to start in May 2009. Work on the other two segments, between mileposts 63 and 70 and mileposts 70 and 75, is to commence around June 2009. Two lanes will be maintained in each direction during construction. The $200 million project is expected to take about 15 months.

The $130 million widening of the Atlantic City Expressway’s 23 westbound miles may start as early as the end of 2009. The first phase of construction covers the nine miles from the Garden State Parkway intersection to milepost 17. The second will be from milepost 17 to the Farley Plaza, and the third will be from the Farley Plaza to Exit 31. No completion date has been set.

GOVERNOR CORZINE INFORMS CONGRESS THAT INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS KEY TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY: Testifying before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure last month, Governor Corzine urged Congress to "turn this period of adversity into a time of opportunity" by establishing a federal program that will spend up to $300 billion on public infrastructure projects. Corzine believes that the jobs created by these federally-funded public works projects will help the nation during the recession. The Governor also stressed in his Oct. 16 message to a joint session of the New Jersey Legislature ways to stimulate the economy and the need for New Jersey to expedite its own public infrastructure projects to create jobs. He said it would take a partnership with the federal government to get the economy moving.

NJ BRIDGE PROJECTS RECEIVE $21 MILLION: Each of the 21 counties in New Jersey will get $1 million from the NJ Department of Transportation to improve their county-owned bridges. Officials said the grants, awarded last month, could be used for preventive maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement of structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridges. Local bridge grants provide funding to counties that would otherwise devote local tax revenue to bridge improvement projects. The grants are directly funded by the state's transportation trust fund.

NJDOT dedicated $25 million in the fiscal year 2009 Transportation Capital Program to local bridge projects. NJDOT will award an additional $4 million in local bridge grants in fiscal year 2009. For a complete list of projects, click here.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

AMTRAK FUNDING SIGNED INTO LAW: President Bush recently signed Amtrak legislation that could nearly double the national rail line's federal subsidy and lead to major track improvements along the busy Northeast Corridor. After years of underfunding and continual financial struggles, the measure sponsored by U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg could be a turning point for the rail line. Over the years, Amtrak has seen a steady increase in passenger traffic, but lacked the financial resources to make improvements and even faced calls for the organization to be dismantled and privatized.

The bill authorizes $13 billion over five years for passenger rail, with more than $2.6 billion annually for Amtrak, intercity passenger rail and high-speed rail programs. The measure lays out the funding framework for five years, but will require separate yearly appropriation votes by Congress. In addition to funding, the legislation requires a collaborative federal and state plan for bringing the Northeast Corridor to a "state of good repair" by 2018, and requires Amtrak stations to comply with disability accessibility standards.

Amtrak alone operates more than 100 trains on a daily basis in New Jersey, with more than 1.6 million people traveling on its trains in the state during the 2007 fiscal year.

DANGEROUS ROADS FOR PEDESTRIANS: The Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a non-profit organization representing Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, recently released a new report that identifies New Jersey’s most dangerous roads for pedestrians. The report indicates that suburban routes, such as Whitehorse Pike (Route 30) in Atlantic County and Route 130 in Burlington County, top the list and are in need of redesign. The report says that between 2005 and 2007, nine pedestrians were killed on each of those two routes, with most of the fatalities occurring where the highways pass through relatively busy suburban areas such as Pomona and Cinnaminson. The group hopes that this new analysis will help state and local leaders determine where improvements are most needed.

Tri-State representatives applauded efforts already underway to improve safety in many areas of the state. The NJ Department of Transportation’s new Safe Corridors was established to improve pedestrian safety along especially dangerous roads. And the state recently revamped its methodology for awarding state and federal safety funds to target places with the greatest need. The full report, as well as county fact sheets, can be found here.

COMMUTER OPTIONS: Mass transit officials are touting evidence that shows commuters pay far more to get to work by car than by bus, train or the ferry. Getting workers out of their cars and onto mass transit has historically been a challenge. According to a survey by the workplace consulting firm Kronos Inc., more than two-thirds of workers nationwide said they didn't change their daily commute, even when gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon. Transit officials said the cost differential is clearer to commuters when using a new calculator that takes into account expenses such as gasoline, tolls and parking, vehicle depreciation and maintenance. It can be accessed by clicking: www.njcommutecalculator.com. To also learn how much your commute with NJ TRANSIT would be, click here and select Train Schedules, Light Rail Schedules or Bus Point-to-Point Schedules.

IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME: The Hudson–Bergen Light Rail (HBLR), operating since April 2000, is a light rail system owned by New Jersey Transit and operated by the 21st Century Rail Corporation. It connects the communities of Bayonne, Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, Union City and North Bergen. The Voorhees Transportation Center, part of the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, recently finalized a study of five stations on the HBLR and found that a housing boom around those stations had added more than $5 billion in property value to the local tax base. One of the key findings of the Voorhees report is that because of the HBLR, property values have increased. To view the complete study, click here.

Click here for the previous update.

Michael Egenton
Vice President , Environment & Transportation
New Jersey Chamber of Commerce
216 West State Street
Trenton, NJ 08608
Phone: (609)989-7888 Ext. 119
Fax: (609)989-9696
Michael.Egenton@njchamber.com