Tilghman Pitts of Princeton
Pity the good citizens of Princeton Borough and Township who now suffer the decision to rebuild the bridge over Stony Brook on Rosedale Road.
Two issues are worthy of discussion: first, the magnitude of the project itself and second, the magnitude of the economic impact on businesses in Princeton Borough. There are other issues of course — inconvenience and potential risks associated with increased response times for emergency personnel — but time and space do not allow for a broader discourse.
The magnitude of the project is difficult to comprehend. We are told that the project will take 135 days. Really? We’re talking about a small bridge on a two-lane road over a fordable stream that few people noticed until it was closed. To put this into some perspective, once a beachhead was established in Normandy in 1944, it took the allies less time to liberate France. In June of 56 BC, Julius Caesar crossed the Rhine River into Germany after his legionnaires built a monstrous wooden bridge, which, at completion, spanned over 300 feet. And let’s be clear on this, Caesar didn’t have internal combustion engines, jackhammers and bulldozers. Remarkably, the bridge was built in a mere 10 days.
For some reason the decision was made to rebuild the bridge in the same style as the one being replaced. Why? If there was any historical significance to the old bridge it is obscure at best. If it were historically significant, it would be repaired, not replaced. No, we are not talking about history. This is not the Brooklyn Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge or even Monet’s bridge. Somewhere, by some committee of some bureaucracy, the decision was made to spend almost $2 million dollars on a new bridge to replicate the esthetic purity of the old one even though a perfectly good bridge could have been built in less time and for less money.
I suspect not many voters would have endorsed that decision, especially after weighing the real cost of the bridge. Granted, in a recession, it is important to put as much money as possible into the economy. Unfortunately, not much of the money being spent on the project is finding it’s way to Princeton. Small business owners are the backbone of our local economy and they are losing life-sustaining revenues, as those shoppers west of the bridge can’t use Rosedale to get into the borough. There are a couple of alternatives but neither is particularly attractive. Accordingly, until the bridge is rebuilt, many shoppers who have supported the borough for years will, at least temporarily, take their business elsewhere.
While local businesses struggle to survive, the lengthy construction on Rosedale will doubtless be the final nail in the coffin for some of our valued commercial establishments. The tragedy in all of this is that had consideration been given to the community instead of the replacement of the bridge, this could have been avoided. Voters should remember this the next time they go to the polls.
Tilghman Pitts
Princeton
