Council to battle truck plan

Township to join with Franklin and North Brunswick to fight plan to allow large trucks on Route 27.

By: Joseph Harvie
   Franklin Township has offered its in-house engineering services to help South Brunswick with its efforts to keep extra large trucks and trailers from driving on Route 27.
   Township Public Affairs Coordinator Ron Schmalz said Tuesday that work on a report to be submitted with an application seeking an exemption to new state rules allowing tractor-trailers on Route 27 in town would cost between $30,000 and $40,000. He said the township would reach out to Franklin and North Brunswick for additional help with engineering studies of the road that would be used in the exemption application.
   South Brunswick Township Manager Matt Watkins said that he would schedule a shared-services meeting with North Brunswick and Franklin to discuss the exemption application, and to see how each of the municipalities would help. Mr. Schmalz said that Franklin has already agreed to provide engineering services.
   The exemption application is in response to state Department of Transportation’s revised Truck Access Regulations that would allow trucks with double trailers and 102-inch wide trucks to drive through the township on Route 27, including sections of Kingston. Township officials say Kingston is too narrow to accommodate the trucks. The exemption application, if approved by the state, would make the road exempt from the regulations.
   In addition, he said that there is a bridge on Route 27 in North Brunswick, near the Hidden Lakes development, that might not be able to handle the weight of the large trucks.
   The DOT reworked its Truck Access Regulations because the Third Circuit U.S. District Court of Appeals ruled in February 2006 that the state’s previous regulations were discriminatory because they banned trucks with origins and or destinations outside the state from certain roads, including Route 27 and Route 206, but not trucks that started and or ended their routes in New Jersey.
   The U.S. Supreme Court in October declined to hear the case, effectively letting the federal appellate decision stand.
   Mr. Schmalz said that township police have already begun conducting a study of the road in Kingston.
   Mayor Frank Gambatese said that he and the Township Council do not want any other municipality’s name on the document if they do not contribute any cash for the application.
   Councilwoman Carol Barrett compared the township’s willingness to fight the DOT’s decision to the hard-line opposition it had on the proposed 6.7-mile limited access toll road, Route 92, which was officially taken off the books in December.
   "We have to fight this knowing we are going to win," Ms. Barrett said.
   Mayor Gambatese said the township would begin working on the exemption immediately.
   "We need to get on this and get working as soon possible," Mayor Gambatese said.