Although things probably couldn’t get worse than last year, New Jersey DOT’s capital program managers claim they are finally "turning the ship," and paying heed to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s call for higher levels of funding for "fix it first" projects. Governor McGreevey also has liberally used the "fix it first" phrase in characterizing his smart growth goals, but last year’s capital program did nothing to instill confidence that it would be achieved.

This year, things are different. The state Transportation Trust Fund portion of the capital program doubles the amount of money devoted to fixing deteriorated bridges (from $21 million to over $50 million), and increases funding for road preservation projects from $78 million to $110 million. Though these are comparable to the levels of funding when the "fix it first" mandate was enshrined in the Trust Fund Renewal Law in 2000, any progress is remarkable in a tight budget year when all discretionary transportation funds (e.g. toll monies) are being used for General Fund purposes.

Local Aid and intermodal funding levels are held constant in FY 2004; funds for new highway capacity projects drop from $62 million last year (not counting a few misclassified projects) to the lowest level ever—just $2.5 million. The combined federal and state portion to be devoted to new highway capacity is under 5% in the scheduled capital program for FY 2004. Transit advocates are satisfied.

Additionally, the Hillsborough Bypass project was delayed due to NJ DOT’s insistence that interchanges be removed from a design that would have promoted sprawl.

More significantly, the draft EIS for the Flemington Bypass (Rt. 31 in Hunterdon County) was rejected at the last minute by DOT Comm. Jack Lettiere for failing to consider smart growth and land use—and sent back to the drawing board.

Construction funds overall are up however, with an additional $30 million in the DOT program-- $610 million compared to last year’s $580 million. Debt service is still a problem, as is the need for additional dedicated funding, plus more than $200 million spent on capital program "delivery and support." These problems will be tackled later this year. 

MTR search facility and back issues:

Search our database of all past issues of Mobilizing the Region since Fall, 1994.

Go to index of all Mobilizing the Region back issues