It is possible that setting the Turnpike Authority the task of extending new lanes southward from the truck lane merge near the Middlesex-Mercer county border will change the focus of transportation planning in central New Jersey away from the Turnpike’s proposed and hotly contested Route 92 plan.

Route 92 is a new-alignment, limited access highway that would cut across southern Middlesex County between the Turnpike and Route 1. The Route 92 environmental impact statement in fact demonstrated that the main road congestion in that part of New Jersey stems from north-south rather than east-west traffic.

Governor Codey told the NY Times that Route 92 is "not off the table but is not on the front burner."

Probably only coincidentally, the Turnpike Authority has withdrawn the applications it had made to the NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection for permits to build bridges and retaining walls for Route 92 project. While the applications were withdrawn on October 13, the information was first reported in the November 25 South Brunswick Post. The reason the agency gave to the newspaper was changing stormwater regulations. Apparently, the Turnpike cannot resubmit the permit requests for one year.

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