The Army Corps of Engineers released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on the much-disputed Route 92 Thursday. Early reading by New Jersey’s media suggests the Army Corps report favors construction.

According to the Star-Ledger, "while the study made no recommendation on which route the road should take, it did say that the plan proposed by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, coupled with the actions the authority proposed to help minimize damage to the environment, had the least environmental impact."

The Campaign has yet to fully review the 800-page DEIS document, though we will summarize our findings here in coming weeks. It will be especially interesting to compare the DEIS traffic projection vs. that done for the Route 92 environmental assessment some years ago. The latter found Route 92’s construction would bring about 10,000 more cars and trucks onto Route 1 each day by 2015.

It will also be interesting to know whether any results of a McGreevey administration review (MTR #419) of the Route 92 project announced in mid-2003 will be incorporated into the DEIS or released in any way as the study is considered by the public.

In a May 2003 letter to the Army Corps of Engineers, the Turnpike Authority’s Chief Engineer requested that Corps delay the release of Route 92’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) so that the Authority can work with New Jersey Department of Transportation, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and the Governor’s Office of Smart Growth to "ensure that all land use, environmental, and transportation issues are adequately addressed." What was the outcome of this broad consultation, and how would a road project here fit with Governor McGreevey’s anti-sprawl agenda? Is a new-alignment highway the best use of transportation dollars (even if they are Turnpike toll revenues) when the state is borrowing heavily to keep its capital program moving?

Some Route 92 supporters are trying to give the plan a smart growth sheen. They say it makes sense to build a highway to accommodate traffic "that will develop on its own," whether the road is built or not. That is the same sophistry many road agencies employ when they forecast population and land use trends without any reference to the transportation system itself.

Of course the presence of Route 92 will influence how and to what extent southern Middlesex County develops, and the fate of the project will be a major test of the governor’s campaign for smart growth. v