Gov. Jon Corzine yesterday announced a $305 million road-widening initiative to help relieve congestion in northeastern New Jersey, one program within the state’s forthcoming 10-year transportation capital program.
The Department of Transportation will release the 10-year plan this spring. The widening program follows Corzine’s earlier announcement last week to raise tolls by as much as 50% and implement new tolls beginning in 2010 to back a potential $37.6 billion bond deal.
That transaction could price this year and include tax-exempt and taxable debt, with bond proceeds paying down nearly half of the state’s more than $30 billion of outstanding debt while providing additional funding for the Transportation Trust Fund Authority, which will run out of funds in 2011.
The added lanes would alleviate congestion in Bergen County, with Route 17, a north-south roadway, increasing to six lanes from four or five lanes along 2.5 miles of road. Route 17 is the most congested roadway in the state, according to an administration press release.
Officials yesterday touted the widening of Route 17, and said the debt-restructuring initiative would support additional roadway improvements throughout the state. The plan to form a public benefit corporation that would boost tolls to finance the massive $37.6 billion bond transaction needs to pass through the legislature and also gain approval from the Internal Revenue Service before tax-exempt debt is sold.
“The congestion on Route 17 underscores the need for a stable, dedicated, long-term transportation funding source,” Corzine said. “Restructuring our state’s finances will enable us to reduce congestion on Route 17 and fund long-overdue congestion relief projects throughout New Jersey.”
While the Route 17 widening program would assist current traffic congestion in the northeast region of the state, officials expect the proposed toll hikes to generate traffic diversion of roughly 10%, thereby creating added congestion on secondary roads.
James W. Hughes, dean at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, said added lanes on Route 17 could help alleviate the effects of traffic diversion. However, he said in the past western counties in the center of the state — Somerset and Hunterdon counties, along with parts of Mercer County — were forced to absorb motorists opting to drive on free roads instead of paying a higher toll.
“We had that model of diversion, which will probably increase, so those costs are going to be pretty much felt by those other jurisdictions,” Hughes said.
Hughes added that Corzine’s debt-restructuring plan and raising toll hikes is the “aftershock” of past Garden State fiscal habits of spending beyond its means and borrowing to plug structural deficits. By raising tolls as opposed to increasing the gas tax or another tax that would directly affect all residents, Corzine’s proposal calls upon motorists to carry the burden of the state’s high debt liability.
“It’s such a disaster that the solution maybe unfair,” Hughes said. “But it’s a possible solution.”
