By Nick Norlen, Staff Writer
Princeton officials were given bad news regarding their efforts to restrict the presence of large trucks by the state Department of Transportation on Monday.
A request by both Princeton Township and Princeton Borough for the exemption of Routes 206 and 27 from the New Jersey Access Network will be denied by the DOT, spokeswoman Erin Phalon confirmed Monday.
The exemption request was made after a recent federal court ruling allowed 102-inch-wide and double-trailer trucks with no New Jersey destination or origin to enter the access network, which includes state and county roadways, known as blue routes.
The state has since created new rules for that truck network, and the DOT also announced during Monday’s meeting that those regulations are scheduled to go into effect Jan. 22 — without any language changes based on the municipalities’ feedback, as they had requested, Mr. Goerner said.
Since the new regulations were proposed, officials and residents have cited concerns about potential detrimental impacts to pedestrian and bicyclist safety, historic structures and the environment.
But those arguments weren’t sufficient for the DOT to grant the exemption request, Ms. Phalon said.
As for the pedestrian usage argument, “every New Jersey Access Road travels in communities where cars, trucks and pedestrians must share the roadway,” she said, noting that violations should be enforced by local authorities.
And “almost every New Jersey Access Road travels through towns with historic properties,” which actually serve to increase tourist businesses and therefore deliveries of goods, Ms. Phalon said.
In addition, Routes 206 and 27 both meet roadway geometric criteria outlined in the regulations, and have travel lanes “of adequate width,” she said.
Township Committeeman Chad Goerner, who attended the meeting along with a number of officials from the DOT, Princeton Borough and Lawrence Township, as well as state Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton), said the municipalities expect the specific reasons for the denial to “come to us the first or second week of January, at which time we’ll review and respond appropriately.”
Both Mr. Goerner and Borough Councilwoman Wendy Benchley, who was also present, said Monday’s announcement was very disappointing, especially since both municipalities filed the weighty request by carefully adhering to the criteria in the regulations.
However, both said the comments from DOT officials weren’t all bad news.
The municipal officials said that commitments stated by DOT Commissioner Kris Kolluri on Monday include plans to address the enforcement of truck violations on the access network roads, to review the current regulations, and to follow up on the Route 206 vision study and to include Lawrence Township in its implementation.
According to Ms. Phalon, Mr. Kolluri is committed to working with the communities to fund a truck pullover area for enforcement of violations, and plans to “engage in a constructive dialogue on improving Route 206.”
The planned task force, she said, will be aimed at updating the blue route designations, and may include input from the towns, the League of Municipalities, law enforcement officials and members of the trucking industry, all of whom were involved in the process to create the regulations.
”I must say the commissioner was gracious in his comments,” Mr. Goerner said. “I think it’s important that we still continue to explore alternatives for that roadway.” Ms. Benchley said she believes Mr. Kollori “does absolutely understand the impact on local towns that trucks have.”
She added, “I think the commissioner was looking to have a continuing cooperative effort to look at the blue route and to reanalyze the requirements. My hope would be that we would come up with definitions that would be reasonable across the state, and I think no matter how you look at it, a definition should exclude Route 206 and 27,” she said. “I hope that we can persevere that way.”

