New Jersey Turnpike

Gross, aggressive, rude and occasional lewd behavior by toll collectors of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority is detailed in customer complaints posted by The Smoking Gun (TSG), an investigative website owned by Court TV. This has created quite a stir.

The New Jersey Turnpike made the news all over the world today apparently - thanks to a traffic reporter's forced landing in his light plane about 6:45 this morning in the northbound lanes of the Turnpike in the south Jersey suburbs of the Philadelphia metro area. The plane a Cessna 152 is powered by a 4-cylinder automobile-like engine.

A joint venture of Aecom, Greenman-Pedersen (GPI) and Parsons Brinckerhoff will be paid $164m for construction management services on the New Jersey Turnpike $2.5b widening project getting under way. The contract has just been signed. The three engineering firms will be responsible for supporting the Turnpike Authority during the construction.

MEMO Diane G-S: Take no notice of that Samuel guy and his offensive comments recently about the Turnpike's venerable 'trailblazer' sign. see http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/4534 We have it on good authority that TOLLROADSnews email Inbox was filled this week with messages from affronted patrons telling him he's wrong. The people out there love that sign, Diane. Samuel is quite out of sync with public opinion. JO CoS

New Jersey Turnpike Authority is trying to slim its costs a little - in line with lower traffic. Traffic in the first ten months of the year is down 4.2% on the Turnpike and down 3.0% on the Parkway. The declines are attributed to the weak economy plus unusually wet weather in the summer - seen to depress trips to the NJ coast.  

"New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine said he’s considering leasing the New Jersey turnpike to help raise money for the state.

Toll collectors at interchanges 16E and 15X of the New Jersey Turnpike were robbed at gunpoint before dawn Sunday. The first holdup was at the toll plaza where HBO's Tony Soprano is seen in the standard opening scenes of the Sopranos crime series grabbing a ticket from a ticket dispensing machine after driving from Manhattan through the Lincoln Tunnel - no E-ZPass for mobsters!

The Flying Fish Brewing Company (FFBC) are naming a series of their beers for Exits on the New Jersey Turnpike.  Located off Exit 4 of the Turnpike in Mount Laurel just ten miles due east of downtown Philadelphia these brewers are champions at marketing. They've scored a heap of TV and radio features for their new line of beers, the Exit Series.

Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti executive director at the New Jersey Turnpike Authority says that following a successful sale of an enormous $1,750m in 30 year bonds in recent days the Turnpike's big capital program is fully financed through the middle of 2010. $1375m of the bonds classified as Build America Bonds (BABs) are taxable bonds 35% subsidized by the US Government as part of the stimulus program, the other $375m were traditional municipal bonds.

A gasoline tanker truck rolled over and caught fire on the New Jersey Turnpike north off ramp of IC16W at NJ3 in East Rutherford in the Meadowlands, Thursday Nov 20, 3pm. The tanker had the standard 8500 gallons (32k liters) of gasoline aboard and the plume of smoke sent up by the fire could easily be seen from all over Manhattan 10km (6 miles) and more away.

Kris Kolluri, the departing chairman of the New Jersey Turnpike is reported as saying Governor Corzine is hot for a start on the big Turnpike widening project. NJBIZ this afternoon quotes Kolluri as saying: "Governor Corzine told me he wants the Turnpike and Garden State Parkway with shovels in the ground by January. But I said to him, 'Give me time until March and April.' "

Fitch Ratings after a review of the New Jersey Turnpike have reaffirmed the 'A' rating for the big toller's revenue bonds, and say its overall outlook rating is Stable, a change from the Negative outlook they had before the recent toll increase.

The board of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority voted unanimously today to raise tolls around 40% immediately and another 50% in 2012. A similar 50% toll hike now was voted today by the South Jersey Transportation Authority, operator of the Atlantic City Expressway.

Toll increases on the New Jersey Turnpike are being trimmed slightly in response to criticism, according to Turnpike officials but they will still be substantial under revised proposals released today. Car tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike will be increased on an average trip from $1.20 to $1.70 (+50c) rather than to $1.80 (+60c) as announced September 4. Truck tolls also will be increased slightly less on the Turnpike than proposed a month ago.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority board in a 3-page letter to Governor Jon Corzine says it cannot meet debt service obligations next year, nor fund capital projects without a substantial toll increase. They propose an increase in Turnpike car tolls of 60c in 2009, and 90c in 2012, and of 15c and 25c on the Garden State Parkway. The decision is unanimous and supported by the the Authority chairman Kris Kolluri who is also Corzine's secretary of transportation.

Senate leaders are discussing with the Corzine administration a private toll concession to manage truck and bus lanes on the New Jersey Turnpike. Richard Cody, president of the senate and Raymond Lesniak chair of an economic committee are both reported by Joe Donahue in the Star-Ledger as saying they are looking at a partial toll concession - either for truck and bus lanes or for premium service lanes for cars.

Michael LaPolla, 51, executive director is leaving the New Jersey Turnpike for an undisclosed job in the private sector. LaPolla says he's most proud of the job he did in "fixing E-ZPass." He also presided over the Turnpike Authority's takeover of the Garden State Parkway and managed to administer the Turnpike without scandal or fuss for almost exactly six years.

Dennis J Enright, the prominent apologist for state toll authorities in the debate on concessions vs public tolling is being paid $200k by the New Jersey Turnpike. Enright said this at a meeting of the New Jersey Turnpike Commission when a commissioner, Clive Cummins questioned the fees being paid for refinancing $400m of auction rate bonds.

The New York Times reports this morning that "Just off the New Jersey Turnpike, America - and more specifically New Jersey - lives and eats."

That's an intro to a gorgeous set of photographs of intriguing indigenous Jersey eateries just off the Pike.

Sylvia Kapuscinski is the photographer.

Governor Jon Corzine will tour the state speaking in all 21 counties over the next few weeks on behalf of his proposal to monetize the New Jersey Turnpike. The first of what are being called "Governor Corzine's Financial Restructuring and Debt Reduction Town Hall Meetings" is set for Jan 12 in Livingston in Essex Co, with others following at two or three days intervals in Hackensack Bergen Co, Randolph in Morris Co, and Middle Twp in Cape May.