MTR 302, Parkway Passes Budget With Big Gaps

Mobilizing the Region
Issue 302 January 29, 2001

Parkway Passes Budget With Big Gaps

At a meeting last Monday, the Garden State Parkway's board approved a 2001 $225 million budget, and $57 million for capital projects. The commissioners also heard details about the troubled financial road ahead for the Parkway. Authority officials told the Commissioners that a toll increase on the Parkway would be a measure of "last resort," but warned that the agency had few other options for funding high priority projects totaling $450 million, including a three-lane expansion of the Raritan River's Driscoll Bridge and eight new tolled interchanges in Ocean and Cape May County.

Executive Director Lewis Thurston assured the Board that a financial plan to cover costs is being developed. However, the agency is already deep in debt, at $650 million in outstanding bonds. Other ideas for savings are relatively minor, like turning over responsibility for Parkway police patrol to the state.

If toll increases are decided for the Parkway in 2001, the NJ Highway Authority should join the New Jersey Turnpike and the Port Authority in embracing congestion pricing and E-ZPass incentives as a way of easing peak hour traffic problems. The Parkway's cross-highway toll barriers could reap significant benefits from non-stop toll lanes that allow E-ZPass users to drive through at normal highway speeds. Parkway engineers have estimated that the cost of converting all the Parkway's toll plazas to non-stop collection points would be $125 million, $25 million less than the Driscoll Bridge project alone.