used to build a highway
Updated 12/2002....
The NJ DOT directed federal study on the best uses of the Bergen Arches has concluded. The public commentary ended in November and we're waiting for the next step. The overwhelming public opinion was against a highway. See the HART website for our detailed analysis of the flaws of the study as presented to NJTPA and NJ DOT.
With all the projects proposed for the area especially after the events of 9/11, Schundler's defeat as Gov, and comments by various county and municipal leaders opposing a highway, it's safe to say that additional funding for a highway is way at the bottom of any priority list. The voting public is opposed to any rubber tire options and all the powers that be know it.. THIS IS ACTIVISM THAT WORKED...
History----- Spring 1999, Mayor Schundler proposed that the $28.1 million federal
Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) allocation for the Bergen Arches be used to build a highway
Bergen Arches/Erie Cut Postcard Courtesy of Leon Yost
so "that the commuters from Montclair have greater access to the Holland Tunnel & waterfront." Schundler convinced the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) to word their $1.1 Million federally funded feasibility study for a highway only, which is against federal guidelines. We at HART, Hudson Alliance for Rational Transportation, LINK , of which I, Mia Scanga, am co-chair, stormed the NJTPA meeting and lobbied for the scope of the study be changed to include all options including light and freight rail as required by federal statute. The Bergen Tunnel underneath the arches is currently "shared" by Norfolk Southern and CSX railroads.
We also convinced the NJTPA board and NJ DOT (see letter below) that JC under Mayor Schundler could not be allowed to control the public outreach meetings or have anything to do with selecting the contractor or subs for the study. Consequently NJTPA set-up a Citizens Advisory committee headed by Councilman Bob Cavanaugh, of which I am a member. Parsons Brinkerhoff was selected to do the study, which began in January 2001. The first meeting was March 6, 2001. See the HART website, for numerous articles and the HART white paper prepared for the NJTPA.
Our letter…May 28, 1999
Commissioner James Weinstein, NJ Department of Transportation
1035 Parkway Avenue, Trenton, NJ 08625
Dear Commissioner Weinstein,
We are residents of Jersey City and members of HART (Hudson Alliance for Rational Transportation - www.hartwheels.org), a citizens group. We have been monitoring the transportation planning and funding process for the currently inactive Bergen Arches rail bed in Jersey City. We are opposed to the highway being promoted for the Arches by Mayor Bret Schundler and have insisted on the full alternatives analysis mandated by federal legislation. The NJTPA (North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority) voted on March 8, 1999, in cognizance of federal rules and our letter-writing campaign, to redefine the scope of the Bergen Arches feasibility study to include all other alternatives, including mass transit.
It is our understanding that you will soon select a local Bergen Arches project coordinator from among a group of local governmental entities. We strongly urge you NOT to select the City of Jersey City. The current administration of Mayor Bret Schundler has shown itself unwilling and unable to supervise a fair and open public planning process for the Arches in accordance with the letter and spirit of NEPA and TEA-21. The public record is crystal clear. Mayor Schundler, in his March 8, 1999 comments to the NJTPA, plumped for his highway in eerie disregard for the regulatory mandate of the agency. Former Congressman Robert Roe, in subsequent remarks, reminded the Board that all alternatives must be considered. Mayor Schundler, in later public meetings in Jersey City, has ridiculed other transportation alternatives proposed for the Arches. In addition, he held a meeting on May 21, 1999 at City Hall with NJ DOT officials concerning Bergen Arches and the adjacent Rt. 139 from which Hudson County officials and HART were excluded and to which only selected members of the public were invited.
We hope that you will take steps to assure adherence to federal transportation planning regulations and public confidence in the integrity of federally and state financed transportation projects in Jersey City.
Sincerely,
Richard James Stephen Lanset Mia Scanga
CC: Gov. Christie Whitman, Joel Weiner, Paul Sauerland, Robert Janiszewski
UPDATE: 6/2/2001
Howard Stein Hudson of NYC has the public outreach contract for the BA study. They conducted two Focus Groups of 12 individuals each on May 22nd & 23rd. HART was instrumental in making sure JC/ Schundler did not coordinate the public outreach process. The meetings were held at Hudson County TMA's office on Warren Street in Paulus Hook. I was at the Tuesday May 22nd meeting and the unanimous consensus was NO HIGHWAY ... Many viewed the area as overrun with cars with no city planning of the "Big Picture". The Paulus Hook members, who have so far born the brunt of the waterfront construction, complained of backed up traffic the entire length of Washington Street & Boulevard now. NO one wants to imagine what it'll be like after the Goldman Sachs office complex is completed with its transplanted 10,000 employees and clients.
I was told that the Wednesday, May 23rd's group was equally adamant against a highway. They favored lite rail to transport commuters to the waterfront. HART favors lite rail and freight rail usage like in Baltimore where freight runs at night and lite/passenger rail runs during the day. Connecting to Secaucus's Allied Junction is no cheap proposition and $28.1 million ain't going to do it.... Look at the HBLTR system currently. Phase 1 runs from Bayonne to eventually Hoboken and that's $1.1 BILLION, mostly federal funds!...
These focus groups confirmed what HART always knew... The only person favoring a HIGHWAY is Bret Schundler... Luckily HART got involved early enough in the process to put all parties on notice, make the Bergen Arches a talked about public issue and kill Schundler's ramrod tactics.. HART just wanted the NJTPA & NJ DOT to follow the federal guidelines from the beginning. It is federal funds...
If Schundler has no qualms in disregarding the good of the people of JC, he'll feel the same for the State. There'll be more $$$ in it for him and his political campaigns... VOTE NO FOR SCHUNDLER IN THE GENERAL ELECTION IN NOVEMBER.... He's been BAD for JC and he'll be worse for the State!
Present State --- Photo courtesy of the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy, Inc.....
Update 3/14/2002 below:
Talk
of a highway through the Bergen Arches has surfaced again.
As a member of the Bergen Arches Advisory Board I was appalled during the
February 2002 meeting when a lengthy discussion of a highway came up.
The potential alignments to a highway through the Arches include the
My group HART, www.hartwheels.org has only supported Lite Rail, Freight Rail or a combo of both through the Arches.
The
timely letter by Travis Madsen from NJ Public Interest Research Group “Combat
smog and its perils” published March 8th in the Jersey Journal
quoted what we’ve all known. “
During
the January 2002 Advisory Board meeting, data was presented by the consultants,
Parsons Brinkerhoff, that the major intersections in the
I implore all those concerned about your health and your children’s to attend the next Advisory Board meeting which is scheduled for 7pm, March 26th in the City Council Chambers, 280 Grove Street. The consultants will present their recommendations.
Check
out our website www.hartwheels.org
for information on the Bergen Arches and thanks to Alan Pollack who video
taped the meeting which airs on Channel 51, Wednesday evenings at
Let’s show NJ DOT, Parsons Brinkerhoff and the NJ Transportation Planning Authority that the health and well bring of urbanites will not be endangered so as to accommodate the car culture of suburbanites. Speak up now before the decisions and contracts are awarded. When the highway construction crews show, it’s too late. Everyone’s health is at stake here.
NEW JERSEY CITY MAYOR COULD END BERGEN ARCHES HIGHWAY PLAN
From the Tri-State Transportation Campaign , Electronic Edition Number
319, May 29, 2001
=======================================================================
" The two Jersey City mayoral candidates left standing after a five-way
primary in early May now say they support using the abandoned Bergen Arches right-of-way
for a new transit line rather than the four- to six-lane highway championed by departing
Mayor and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler.
The proposed highway would run from the new Turnpike interchange at Secaucus
through Tonnelle Circle to the Holland Tunnel plaza and the Jersey City waterfront. A
major investment study for the project was altered to include transit and other
alternatives after protest by residents and the Hudson Alliance for Rational
Transportation (HART).
Schundler hired an engineering firm to draw up conceptual plans for
the highway and a consultant to lobby for Trenton's support of the highway plan
(MTR #306). But candidate and Council President Tom DeGise told listeners at a community
sponsored debate last Monday that he favors transit in the right-of-way and that his
administration would accept adjacent land
offered by a developer for park land, blocking highway development. Candidate Glenn
Cunningham reportedly
also favors light rail for the Bergen Arches as part of his platform of neighborhood
revitalization."
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