Bergen Arches Comments

REFER TO ATTACHED MAP

The current plans for development in Jersey City and the rest of the Hudson County waterfront will increase the population and commercial density level only matched in the USA. by Manhattan

It is obvious that the New York City economic engine would not exist without the extensive network of rail lines feeding into Downtown and Midtown Manhattan. It is to be noted that not a single Expressway of the type envision for the Bergen Arches exists to bring motor vehicles into these Central Business Districts.

Rail for the Archways Instead of an Expressway

The proposed Bergen Arches Expressway will increase congestion and single occupancy vehicle use, not only in Jersey City but in a large nearby region to the west and north.

The Hudson County area can only prosper with a radical holistic upgrade to its transit system. The Hudson--Bergen Light Rail is a step in this direction. But it is only a small step. One North/South route does not make a system. A light rail extending west through the Bergen Archway connecting with park and ride lots in North Bergen, Secaucus and at the Sports Complex would keep the automobiles away from the Jersey City, Hoboken, and Bayonne Central Business Districts.

Each track of a rail line can carry as many passengers as ten lanes of traffic. An Archway light rail can intercept people coming, to the waterfront, from and through Rockland, Bergen, Passaic and parts of Essex Counties. With an Archway Light Rail, combined with the Hudson-Bergen, PATH and NJ Transit's trains coming to Hoboken Terminal you would have an extensive transit network which could properly serve the waterfront area well into the next century.

However, based on history highways through urban areas become congested within a few years after they are completed.

It does not make economic sense to build extensive parking garages on expensive downtown properties. Buildings can more profitably be used to house productive workers not for temporary storage spaces for two ton hunks of wheeled steel.

Piecemeal Planning of Highways

Several years ago executives of the Allied Corporation made several presentations aimed at obtaining support for building Allied Junction/Secaucus Transfer. They told the groups that one facet of the project involved building a highway connecting the Meadowlands Parkway in Secaucus with the Tonnelle Avenue traffic circle in Jersey City, a distance of about three miles. Of course we did not believe that anyone would expect to end that highway at Tonnelle Avenue. The proposal for a Bergen Arches Expressway must be considered a logical, but I hope not inevitable, consequence of the Allied Junction Development.

It is reasonable to expect that if the Arches Highway were to be built, Meadowlands Parkway would also need to be upgraded to expressway standards. According to the presentation that I attended either an Allied Executives or a NJ Transit representative said that a roadway connector between Meadowlands Parkway and Tonnelle Avenue would use the Bergen County Line right-of-way which will be abandoned when Secaucus transfer becomes operational.

It is to be noted that Allied Corporation has requested that the NJ Turnpike build an interchange near their property. That interchange will connect with the Bergen Arches Expressway

To avoid piecemeal planning and to comply with federal regulations which do not favor transportation projects being approved on a segment by segment basis. To make sure that all the negative consequences are made known the full environmental impact of the entire five and half mile roadway from Jersey City to Route 3 in Secaucus including the new Turnpike interchange must be considered in the study as a single project. The requirements for all permits must be ment before any part of this project can be allowed to be started..

New Jersey will not only be committing itself to building a one mile roadway in the Bergen Arches but will be beginning to undertake a vast new five mile highway complex. The length of this commitment would be equivalent to building the Route 95/80 from the George Washington Bridge almost to Route 17. The final cost of the Bergen Arches Expressway Network could very well exceed $2 billion.

It will take all the money New Jersey collects in gas taxes for four years to equal two billion dollars and all they have committed from the federal government is $67 million.

The effect of emissions on Air Quality resulting from engendered traffic over the LONG TERM (after new congestion has becomes the norm) must be determined. But also to be considered is the delay effect that funding of this roadway would have on other projects that are certain to have a beneficial effect on air quality. As an example, the Northern Branch Light Rail project which has the potential to reduce daily auto trips by some 40,000

Use for the New Jersey Turnpike's Jersey City Extension.

A fuller use of the Turnpike Extension could help the traffic situation in Jersey City. Many people coming from the south and west who could, and would, otherwise use the Extension go to Jersey City via Routes 1 & 9 and Route139 to avoid paying the Turnpike tolls.

Very few people use the Turnpike Extension when they travel within Jersey City or go to Bayonne. This because in addition to having to pay tolls they often waste too much time as they waiting in-line twice at the booths.

Turnpike tolls distorting traffic patterns to and in Jersey City. A concerted effort should be made to eliminate the tolls when using the Extension. This would not only reduce the volume using Route 139 but would serve to remove some of the longer distance local auto trips from the city streets. Eliminating tolls on the Extension is an alternative which must be considered because it would not only cost much less less than building new highways but it can be done with a stroke immediately with the stroke of a pen. Another benefit would be the elimination of delays which would result from the construction of a road project.

For: T r a n s i t Committee of Bergen County, February 14, 1999
Chairman: Albert F. Cafiero

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