Mammoth new road projects threaten to dump more traffic onto NJ's Hudson waterfront and the Hackensack Meadowlands. In her "New Jersey First" plan, Governor Whitman cited the proposed NJ Turnpike interchange in the Meadowlands as one of the "missing highway links essential to our regional mobility strategy." But the interchange has come under fire as a catalyst for construction of an enormous car-dependent office complex in the middle of the Meadowlands.

Enter the "Bergen Arches" project, a plan to renovate unused rail "tunnels" through Jersey City into highways. A last-minute entry into the federal TEA-21 "priority projects" list provides $26.5 million for these highways, which according to the Star Ledger will cost $300 million in public money in addition to unspecified private funding. The Bergen Arches project would include a road running from the new Turnpike interchange at Secaucus through Tonnelle Circle to the 11^th Street viaduct adjacent to the Holland Tunnel plaza.

Funneling additional vehicles into the jammed Holland Tunnel and onto the streets of NYC is a dubious proposition. Project supporters, who include Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler and Rep. Robert Menendez, contend that the new roads will vastly improve access to Jersey City's and Hoboken's thriving waterfront areas. Yet local streets there are already overburdened, and more traffic could undercut the benefits of the waterfront Hudson-Bergen light rail, due to open next year.

A third megaproject may seal the waterfront's fate. The "Waterfront Boulevard," dubbed "the stealth highway" by locals who have fought for years to make NJDOT unveil what they say is a plan to build a new highway from Bayonne to Edgewater, has appeared in the State's project study list for the coming year. Ironically, the Governor listed this project as among those "at risk" if New Jerseyans fail to support her 5 cent gas tax hike proposal this year. Unfortunately, a vote against the gas tax may not be sufficient to halt the Bergen Arches and Turnpike Meadowlands interchange projects.