The Long Acres neighborhood, which borders I-295, has received another chance at having a noise barrier built between the houses on West Church Road and the interstate.
The New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT) has agreed to update its study of the Long Acres neighborhood “for the purposes of considering whether to construct the noise barrier,” Lawrence Township Municipal Manager Kevin Nerwinski said.
Nerwinski, along with Municipal Engineer Jim Parvesse and several neighborhood residents, met with DOT officials earlier this month to discuss the noise barrier, which they have been pushing for since the early 1990’s.
The DOT had promised to build a noise barrier along the highway frontage several times, but never followed through, Nerwinski said.
At the Oct. 1 meeting with township officials and residents, DOT officials explained the criteria for building a noise barrier, and the reasons why it has not been built in Lawrence Township.
The officials said there is a limited amount of money, and the agency is prioritizing projects that address safety issues, Nerwinski said. Noise barriers are a lesser priority than bridge and roadway repairs.
The Long Acres neighborhood residents, meanwhile, gave a presentation to DOT officials at the Oct. 1 meeting to expand on why they felt they needed a noise wall. The presentation reviewed Lawrence Township’s efforts to have a noise barrier constructed over the past several decades.
The presentation pointed out that homes in the Long Acres neighborhood, which is located behind the Lawrence Township Municipal Complex, were completed in 1966. The interstate highway was completed in 1975.
And although the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1970 required consideration of noise impacts for new highways, the newly-built I-95 – as it was then known – was grandfathered in, residents said.
The highway was supposed to have been built below the existing grade to mitigate the noise, residents said. But the roadway was built 7 to 8 feet above grade level – above their houses – and that contributes to the noise level, they said.
Meanwhile, the number of cars and trucks using I-295 has increased. The DOT traffic count was between 56,889 and 64,600 cars per day in 1997. In 20 years, it has climbed to 88,161 cars per day, according to the residents’ presentation.
The presentation noted that former Gov. Jim Florio included money for the noise barrier in the early 1990’s, but the plans were shelved when he lost his reelection bid for the governorship.
The issue surfaced again in 1999, when the DOT agreed to build a noise barrier if Lawrence Township would contribute toward its cost. But subsequent changes in federal regulations banned towns from contributing money toward projects.
Former DOT Commissioner Jack Lettiere agreed in 2005 to build a noise barrier – a 13-foot-tall wooden wall that would have cost an estimated $3.2 million. The project was to be funded through the DOT’s Transportation Trust Fund.
But the plan was put aside in 2008, when the DOT’s priorities shifted to road and bridge projects. Money in the Transportation Trust Fund was running out, which was also a factor in the decision not to build the noise barrier.
Lawrence Township officials have continued to lobby for the noise barrier, but each time the request was rejected for financial reasons – even after the fuel tax was increased to provide funding for the DOT Transportation Trust Fund.