MTR 269, Army Corps Raps Second Jersey Road Project

Issue 269

May 15, 2000

Army Corps Raps Second Jersey Road Project

Last week, the South Jersey Transportation Authority agreed to pay a land conservation group $225,000 to avoid facing an administrative trial for numerous violations of federal environmental permits during highway construction associated with the Atlantic City tunnel project. The $330 million dollar project, funded jointly by New Jersey, Mirage Resorts, and the authority, is intended to link the Atlantic City Expressway with the Marina district where a billion-dollar casino development is planned. The Army Corps of Engineers began proceedings in January when it found the authority had improperly dumped dredged and fill material in off-limits water and wetlands areas along the extended expressway route.

The Army Corps brought a strikingly similar case against the NJ Department of Transportation last month that resulted in a $25,000 fine and forced suspension of the agency's work on Route 29 in Trenton (MTR #264). DOT's contractor was found guilty of actively dumping dredged material into the Delaware River and allowing further sediment to drop in it, disrupting the upstream migration of shad and threatening an endangered species of sturgeon.

Activists and Federal agencies would not have to continually watch-dog these damaging projects if language in the Trust Fund reauthorization bill prohibited highway expansion through environmentally sensitive land ostensibly protected by the State Development and Redevelopment Plan.