From The Jersey Sierran, July - September 2022
Transportation Committee Update
By Matthew Bewley, 14bewleym@gmail.com
The NJ Turnpike Authority (NJTA) has proposed a destructive widening of the Newark Bay Extension, which runs through Newark, Bayonne, and Jersey City. The widening is expensive, socially inequitable, and environmentally devastating. This is an update on the impacts of the project and what Sierra Club members can do to oppose it.
Built in 1956, the extension has two lanes in each direction and carries car and truck traffic between the Turnpike, the Holland Tunnel, and points in between. The NJTA will spend at least $4.7 billion and 10 years widening the extension to as many as four lanes in each direction. The stated goal of this exorbitant project is to reduce traffic congestion and delays, ignoring evidence that highway widenings typically increase traffic.
With increased traffic comes increased harm to communities in Newark, Bayonne, and Jersey City, which have borne the impacts of the extension for decades. Highway traffic not only worsens regional air pollution, but also directly sickens those who live closest to highways. Schools and parks line the extension, and thousands of people live close enough to breathe in vehicle pollutants that cause asthma and cardiovascular disease. Natural gas pipelines running along portions of the extension could be disturbed by the expansion work. The NJTA does not even propose to study these impacts.
Finally, the widening is directly at odds with the state’s “80 by 50” goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent of 2006 levels by 2050. Achieving that goal is essential to minimizing additional warming in coming decades, and transportation emissions make up 42 percent of New Jersey’s greenhouse gas emissions. The extension widening will only encourage more truck and passenger car traffic, leading us in exactly the wrong direction.
The Empower NJ coalition, which includes this Chapter, is coordinating a response with representatives of the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition, Safe Streets Jersey City, Bike JC, the Chapter’s Transportation Committee, and other groups. Empower NJ is filing petitions with the NJTA alleging a failure to comply with several of Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive orders, which require compliance with the 80 by 50 goal and require consideration of environmental justice in all agency decision-making. However, the NJTA has already approved contracts for design work on portions of the extension past Interchange 14A in Bayonne—there is no time to lose in pressuring the NJTA to take our objections seriously.
What you can do:
Look out for an action notice this summer. Empower NJ is coordinating letters and calls to officials for maximum effect.
Contact Transportation Outreach Coordinator Matt Bewley (14bewleym@gmail.com) if you’re interested in being more involved. Residents of Hudson County who would be willing to contact elected officials or speak at public meetings are especially encouraged to reach out.
Resources
Project fact sheet: https://bit.ly/3yHu2Ri
Traffic study: https://bit.ly/3Pi6Lv3
Transportation emissions: https://bit.ly/3wxRJZk
Jersey City opposition: https://bit.ly/3Pm2yqb
Induced demand explainer: https://bit.ly/3whfiqo
Lead contamination from Turnpike cleaning: https://bit.ly/3lcD4xw