The Tri-State Transportation Campaign urged New Jerseyans to approach Governor Codey’s announcement that he would seek to add lanes to the New Jersey Turnpike between Middlesex and Burlington counties with caution. Although the bottleneck where the highway’s truck lanes end between Exits 8 and 8A represents a tremendous traffic problem, the Turnpike will have to explain why such an extensive project — comprising 40 to 80 miles of new lanes — will be needed to provide some relief for it.

Such a large-scale and costly proposal certainly should be subjected to an extensive environmental impact statement, which should examine potential sprawl-inducing effects in Burlington County and a variety of toll policy scenarios for their effects on truck routing. Governor Codey more or less acknowledged that the project would likely trigger Turnpike toll increases.

The proposal also raises several other key policy questions and issues:

• The Federal Highway Administration estimates that movement of freight tonnage in New Jersey will increase by 72% by 2020, and much of the impetus for the governor’s proposal seems to be accommodation of more truck traffic. Will the Codey Administration make an investment in rail freight projects commensurate with the spending it anticipates on the Turnpike so that some of the projected truck traffic and its impacts on New Jersey’s roads and communities is avoided?

• New Jersey has exhausted most of its sources of transportation construction funding and is going deeper into debt to keep NJ DOT and NJ Transit work going this year. The state’s bridges and highway pavement are among the worst in the country, while NJ Transit is forced to neglect key repair work in order to fund day-to-day operations. Is a $1 billion highway expansion plan the state’s most pressing transportation need?

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