Elevated Rt. 55 Will Be Project For Authority

BURLEIGH — “We have a glimmer of hope,” Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-1st) said of an expanded, elevated Route 55 into Cape May County.
He spoke to the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce Aug. 20 during the group’s Legislators’ Day at Wildwood Golf Club, before over 100 members.
“It needs to be done,” Van Drew told the group that works hard to draw tourists to the Jersey Cape.
Van Drew said the extension from the southern end of the highway in Port Elizabeth to Cape May County would be engineered by the South Jersey Transportation Authority, not Department of Transportation.
“That’s huge for them to say ‘We are going to shoulder that,’” Van Drew said.
Van Drew estimated the project’s cost at $1 billion for an elevated highway, although he said the final project design has yet to the completed.
He also said he would not support tolls on the existing Route 55, which was built and operates without tolls.
He said the authority, when created, was given two mandates: construct the Atlantic City Expressway, and a Cape May Expressway.
“What happens where it ends?” he asked. “Accidents and air pollution.”
The Department of Transportation “never wanted to do that and the Transportation Authority was willing to do that. The authority said, ‘Let’s get that final design done,’” said the senator.
Assemblyman Nelson Albano and Assemblyman Matthew Milam also spoke regarding Route 55.
Speaking of the need for the highway, Albano said, “No one knows better than Matthew Milam and I. We are here two, three four times a week. During the week it’s not bad, we can estimate a time. On weekends, there is no way of estimating times.”
Backups on Route 347 slowed his trip to Erma on a recent weekend to over two hours from Vineland.
With such a delay, he wondered what tourists from Pennsylvania would think, and possibly opt for destinations south, which are more accessible, like Delaware, Virginia or Washington, D.C. areas.
“It’s just as easy or easier to get on Interstate 95 and go South,” Albano said.
Route 55 is needed, too, with the added attraction in Millville of the Motorsports park.
“We want to make it as easy and accessible as possible,” Albano said.
He said Route 55 extension would be environmentally safe for plants and animals.
While some cite environmental concerns over an expanded Route 55, Albano said, “Talking about what is disturbing to the environment is sitting on Route 55 or 47 or 347, thousands of cards burning fuel, dripping oil and not moving. What other way can you ruin the environment?” he asked.
Contact Campbell at (609) 886-8600 ext 28 or at: al.c@cmcherald.com