Widening the Turnpike and the Parkway

by: Jason Springer

Tue Jul 14, 2009 at 05:42:14 PM EDT

I watched this video put out by the Governor's office after sitting in the traffic heading south on the turnpike over the weekend, where they talk about what is being done to widen the Turnpike and Parkway:

Here's more about the Turnpike section of the project:

State officials broke ground Thursday in East Windsor on a $2.7 billion project that will widen the New Jersey Turnpike, one of the nation's busiest highways.
The project will increase the number of lanes from 6 and 10 to 12 and keep the lanes divided along a 25-mile stretch of the roadway between Cranbury and the Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange near Mansfield. Another 10 miles of roadway will be expanded from 10 lanes to 12 between Cranbury and East Brunswick.
Presently, traffic frequently backs up along the stretch that will be widened as 12 lanes are reduced to 10 and than 6. The turnpike carries an average 680,000 vehicles daily and is a major East Coast link between New York and Boston in the north and Philadelphia and Washington in the south.
The project will add 170 miles of new roadway. Construction is expected cause traffic delays until the widening is completed in 2014 but actual work will not begin until August.

That would be where I enjoyed virtually parking momentarily. But the Sierra club came out with what has become a regular release criticizing the Turnpike widening:

"This project in its current form is the opposite of smart growth; it is dumb growth and a huge waste of money," NJ Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel said.

And not to be left out, the Parkway as well:

"All we're doing is turning the Parkway into a bigger, more expensive parking lot," NJ Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel said. "This project will create two 50 mile long ribbons of asphalt, which will pave over the Pinelands and environmentally sensitive coastal areas, will make sprawl and traffic worse and take money away from the areas that actually need it."

As much as I'd like to take a train sometimes, it's just not possible from where I am. I've said before, I can't get a direct train to New York from South Jersey. I couldn't even get to the Hudson Tunnel line they're building (which the Sierra Club opposed) without driving north first. So while people debate the merits of the projects and until there is expanded train service or widened roads, you can learn about where the traffic is because the state operates the 511 service and you can see live video on the web.

Jason Springer :: Widening the Turnpike and the Parkway

Here's an additional video put out by the campaign about the turnpike project called "Main Street USA"