| Issue 297 | December 11, 2000 |
| Issue 297 | December 11, 2000 |
Community meetings occurred over the summer and fall at which various kinds of capacity expansions were proposed and discussed. Near-term proposals include shoulder widening and added turn lanes and ramps, while widening the two-lane highway to three or four-lanes or constructing four- or six-lane bypasses around the towns of Lafayette and Jefferson were suggested longer-term improvements. NJ DOT is now circulating resolutions in favor of the expansions to area town councils. Plans for the corridor will be submitted to NJTPA by January.
Environmentalists and transportation groups are advocating for alternative measures to combat the corridor's traffic problems. The U.S. Forest Service and the NJDEP have both demarcated the region as high priority habitat for threatened and endangered species. Most of the current congestion, especially on the northern section of the highway, reportedly is not local traffic, but rathe holidays and weekend travelers cutting through Highlands towns from Route 80 en route to the Poconos in northern Pennsylvania.
The widening proposals have a powerful supporter in NJ Senator Robert Littell, Chairman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.
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Last Thursday, the New Jersey Assembly Transportation Committee voted 4-2 to release a resolution calling on the NJ DOT to resuscitate long-dead plans to extend Route 55 through Cape May County to the Garden State Parkway. The four-lane highway currently ends abruptly in Cumberland County, shunting shore-bound summer traffic onto two-lane Route 47.
The Assembly resolution and its Senate companion, already approved and filed with the Secretary of State, have been pushed by southern New Jersey legislators Assemblymen John Gibson and Nicholas Asselta and spearheaded by Senator James Cafiero, but vehemently opposed by environmental and transportation reform groups. The Pinelands Commission, New Jersey Audubon Society, New Jersey Environmental Federation, New Jersey Conservation Foundation and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign were among the groups who spoke at the Committee meeting against the resolution.
The most likely route for the extension would send the highway across the Manumuskin River and other smaller watersheds and through major state and national wildlife management and refuge areas, including the southern portion of the Pinelands National Preserve. Opponents also testified that, besides threatening these unique, environmentally sensitive lands, the highway would also draw increased traffic once connected to the Garden State Parkway.
Now primarily a conduit for weekend vacationers from Philadelphia and surrounds, Route 55 could become a major commuting thoroughfare in the other direction, bringing more permanent residents and greater development to a now rural region. Such a shift was predicted in a November 1998 report from the Southern Jersey Transportation Planning Organization that suggested that the Parkway would require simultaneous widening as a result. The report advised against the extension, warning that environmental mitigation and additional capacity expansions could double the estimated $500 million cost of the project.
It is unclear to what extent the NJ DOT is behind the project. Spokesman John Dourgarian told the Courier Post that the agency thinks "it would be better to try to manage traffic flow" than lay more pavement. However, a recent needs assessment memo lists a Route 55 Environmental Impact Statement as "presently active and funded".
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