DISPATCHES By Hank Kalet : Turnpike takes first step to kill Route 92

DISPATCHES By Hank Kalet : Reallocation of Turnpike funds could help to finally kill Route 92.

By: Hank Kalet
   It’s not dead, but it certainly is on life-support.
   And that should be good news for those of us in the region that value the environment.
   The N.J. Turnpike Authority has effectively ended its pursuit of the long-discussed boondoggle known as Route 92, taking $175 million of the $181.5 million set aside for the road and shifting its resources to the widening of the turnpike.
   While the Turnpike Authority’s Tuesday vote does not officially kill the project — it still could come up with money at a later date — it does send a clear signal that it finds other priorities more pressing.
   I couldn’t agree more. As I’ve written on more than one occasion, the road makes little sense.
   The 6.7-mile highway — projected to cost in the neighborhood of $500 million — would do little to address regional traffic concerns, while chewing up acres of wetlands.
   The Turnpike widening proposal, on the other hand, is way overdue — and is just another example of how effective a chief executive Acting-Gov. Richard Codey has been since taking office a little over a year ago.
   He got the ball rolling Dec. 1 of last year when he placed the much-needed widening plan on the table. The plan — designed to ease bottlenecking for southbound traffic at Exit 8A — calls for adding one lane in both directions between Exit 8A and Exit 6, where the turnpike connects with the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
   Gov. Codey reasoned — correctly — that more lanes will make the turnpike a more attractive option for drivers, easing traffic throughout the region.
   The big question at the time, however, was how the Turnpike Authority planned to pay for the widening. No one was willing to place a price tag on the project, though estimates in the neighborhood of $1.2 billion were being floated. That, of course, is a lot of cash, especially for a cash-strapped agency like the Turnpike Authority.
   So, how do you pay for it? The answer — in addition to the inevitable increase in tolls — is to eliminate expensive and unnecessary projects. And there are few projects more unnecessary than the proposed 6.7-mile Route 92 spur.
   So Tuesday’s vote seems like a no-brainer.
   And yet, while the Turnpike Authority has changed course for now on Route 92, it hasn’t pulled the plug. Which is why we need to keep the pressure on. As I have argued repeatedly over the last 10 years or so, Route 92 would offer the region few real benefits, would wreak havoc on the South Brunswick village of Kingston, as well as on towns to the west, and could cost upwards of $500 million — an absurd amount of cash for what we believe is a private driveway into the Forrestal office complex in Plainsboro.
   I would hope that State Sen. Peter Inverso and Assembly members Bill Baroni, who has been a staunch opponent of the highway, and Linda Greenstein, who came out against the highway during her recent campaign, will reintroduce legislation stripping the Turnpike Authority of its authorization to build Route 92 and follow it up with legislation killing it altogether.
   Now that we have the beast down on the ground, we have to finish the job.
Hank Kalet is managing editor of the South Brunswick Post and The Cranbury Press. His e-mail is [email protected].