New Jersey transportation commissioner James Fox told state legislators last week that “Every bridge that is ready to be repaired is being repaired next year.”  The somewhat circular statement neglected to mention that that number is just three bridges statewide that will be repaired with state transportation Trust Fund monies.  All other bridges being fixed are largely or totally funded with federal bridge or “earmark” funds, which can be spent nowhere else.

Fox spoke in response to questions from budget committee legislators about the NJ Dept. of Transportation’s lack of progress and commitment to the 2000 Trust Fund renewal law’s fix-it-first mandate.

State Senator Bernard Kenny asked for the administration’s position on an budget amendment to reallocate $20 million to bridge and roadway preservation from “statewide line items,” which now comprise 76% of state highway spending in this year’s DOT budget proposal. Fox said “I couldn’t spend it because no other bridges are ready for construction.”

This sad state of affairs is what prompted the Tri-State Campaign to seek a budget amendment to reallocate priorities within the Trust Fund capital program for 2003, to ensure that more bridge and pavement repair projects move into the construction pipeline next year.  Year after year, DOT claims it does not have fix-it projects ready to build but starves these areas of the funds needed to get projects ready.

Of the $580 million that DOT will receive from the Trust Fund in 2003, only $21.3 million will be spent to repair bridges and $78.7 million to repair roads.An alarming 76% of the department’s program, or $440 million, is dedicated to “statewide line items” – projects that are not identified and give complete spending discretion to NJ DOT.

Senator Joseph Kyrillos Jr. queried NJ Transit director George Warrington closely about the McGreevey plan to reduce operating support for Transit by the same amount as the agency will raise this year from its recent fare increase (MTR #366).Kyrillos said the agency would have a hard time justifying further increases if the money simply disappears into the general fund.

Questions about DOT’s inadequate maintenance effort were accompanied by questions about weak spending on rail freight and pedestrian projects, and NJTransit’s seeming inability to overcome crowding.  The questions came from a bi-partisan group of legislators, including Bonnie Watson-Coleman, Francis Blee and Thomas H. Kean Jr. in the Assembly and Wayne Bryant, Bernard Kenny, Barbara Buono, Leonard Lance, Walter Kavanuagh, Martha Bark and Barbara Buono in the Senate. 

Fight to Fix NJ Bridges and Roads Continues (April 8, 2002)

NJ Capital Program – Deja Vu All Over Again (March 4, 2002) 

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