NJ Pike seeks costs against Tri-State protesters on Garden State Parkway widening

New Jersey Turnpike Authority lawyers are seeking costs against the regular anti-road protesters at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC) for a "frivolous" lawsuit against widening the Garden State Parkway. TSTC is suing for an injunction to stop work on the widening project MP30 to MP80, a stretch of 80km (50 miles) on the Jersey shore.

The TSTC claim that Governor Corzine is behind the move: "This attempt by Governor Corzine to silence his critics is a chilling example of intimidation by state government and something that should be of concern for everyone in New Jersey, whether or not they support the project."

They present no evidence that the Governor was involved in the Turnpike Authority decision to seek costs.

The Turnpike received all the needed environmental and other permits for the third laning project, but the TSTC protesters claim the Turnpike Authority failed to make a case for the project and failed to follow public notice requirements fully. Its suit says the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection wrongly approved the project.

Complain that widening isn't enough for 2025

Major issue in the TSTC complaint is summarized in a TSTC statement: "The fact remains that Governor Corzine plans to spend nearly $1 billion (the Turnpike says its $900m - TRnews) on a highway widening project that is going to fill up with traffic shortly after it’s finished and that is going to increase sprawl development and congestion throughout the corridor.... But by 2025, five sections of the 15 to be widened will have more than 52,200 cars per day. In other words, traffic will be worse on the widened road than it is today."

The campaigners base this claim on a table in the EIS (see below) in which average annual daily traffic (AADT) is forecast to exceed 52.2k by 2025 in five out of 15 segments of the widened section.

52.2k is stated as the "capacity" of 2x3 lanes of expressway.

The highest segment traffic at present is 45.8k against the 34.8k "capacity" of 2x2 lanes. At present only three segments are over capacity.

see http://www.tstc.org/press/2009/073009_NJ_statement.html

COMMENT: Seems to us that this is a case FOR the widening, not against it, and that the Turnpike Authority may need to look for 4th laning the northern section in about 2020. But saying the Turnpike's widening plan may in the future prove inadequate is not an argument against widening.

America would suffer a lot less silly litigation of this kind with the British rule of loser-pays legal costs. The NJ Turnpike suit is a small step in that direction.

Also it is preposterous to say it has anying to so with "silencing" critics. TSTC is not silenced.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-08-05