Garden State Pwy Gets Garden Award

The American Society of Landscape Architects has given NJ’s Garden State Parkway a centennial award – only one of two – in recognition of the quality of its landscaping achievements. In an era when tress are felled to make for safety clearzones, concrete jersey barriers abound, medians are being paved inward and huge masonry sound walls line the sides of roads, many highways are bleakly hard-surfaced. However the NJHA which runs the GS Pwy has made a special effort to keep the environs of its road softer, keeping some meaning in the ‘Parkway’ name. It has a major program of planting beds of wildflowers and has worked with the National Audobon Socierty to provide bird habitat for the coastal migratory flyway within its right of way. The GS Pwy is 277km (173mi) long and takes about 1.5m tolls daily.