Save Our Turnpike In The News

TRENTON — Environmentalists joined advocates for motorists and commuters Tuesday to demand Gov. Jon S. Corzine pull back on plans to use revenue from toll hikes that take effect in December to widen parts of the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike.

"People in New Jersey will be paying more money to be stuck in traffic longer," said the Sierra Club's Jeff Tittel.

"Repairing existing infrastructure means more jobs," said David Pringle of the New Jersey Environmental Federation. He said that by widening parts of the toll roads, "You are not solving the problem. You are moving the problem."

The advocates said Corzine will tout the widening plans in his address to both chambers of the Legislature Thursday, where he is expected to reveal how he wants to navigate New Jersey through looming economic woe.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority last week approved toll increases — 40 percent this year, and another 50 percent in 2012 — to help fund $7 billion in road work.

Joe Orlando, spokesman for the Turnpike Authority, which oversees both the Parkway and Turnpike, said, "This plan does cover the refurbishment and more than 1,000 bridges. As for the idea of stopping this widening, it is not even a consideration."

The groups allied against widening included Environment New Jersey, New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, the New Jersey Audubon Society and Pringle's and Tittel's groups.

They argued that public money could be spent more wisely spent by repairing existing infrastructure, looking to create jobs in so-called green industries and — if the toll roads are to be widened — at least do it where the roads are now crowded.

"This is not going to provide congestion relief," said Zoe Baldwin, New Jersey coordinator for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

Matt Elliott, of the group Environment New Jersey, cited a study concluding that repairing roads and bridges, and investing in public transportation, creates more jobs than widening roads.

"With all his experience on Wall Street, you'd think the governor would recognize a bad investment when he saw one," said Jacob Koetsier of NJPIRG.

Tittel said widening the Turnpike — as is planned on the Turnpike from New Brunswick south to the Columbus turnoff for the Pennsylvania Turnpike, at a cost of $2.5 billion, and on the Parkway from Toms River to Manahawkin at a $200 million cost — essentially opens those areas to attract new malls and housing developments.

"This is all about pay to play, or pay to pave," Tittel said.