Raising a Road’s Almost an Eternal Project

Engineering is a fascinating field. Two weeks ago, I reported on the $9-million county road project that will raise Sea Isle City Boulevard 4.5 feet. It will be the biggest road project, thus far, in the county this century. Those who recall reconstruction of North Wildwood Boulevard (aka A.J. Cafiero Memorial Highway) know what a tremendous effort was required when highways are revised. At least there are no dwellings to buy and demolish, as was the case on the North Wildwood span, but that doesn’t mean it’s clear sailing start to finish.
Listening to County Engineer Dale Foster tell about the project was a head-shaking experience. I think the road could be safely elevated 4.5 feet merely by stacking all the paperwork from Garden State Parkway ramps to the bridge heading into the resort. Keep in mind; this is the nation that, long ago, embarked on the “Paperwork Reduction Act.” Lest we forget that 1995 waste of time and energy, passed by the 104th Congress, “To further the goals of the Paperwork Reduction Act to have Federal agencies become more responsible and publicly accountable for reducing the burden of Federal paperwork on the public, and for other purposes.” What a joke that is, a wasted effort if ever there was one. So worried about the environment is the government, how many trees were felled to produce paper to document every inch of highway? This is the digital age, unless no one reminded the powers that hold the dollars. A PDF could easily contain all the documents, but then, these are the federal and state governments with which Foster is dealing.
Foster attends freeholder meetings with an arm-breaking load of documents, some deal with projects about which he briefs the solons, who might ask a question about this or that. He told me that it’s his job to read over all that paperwork for each project. Although there are other engineers involved in virtually every phase of such a project, it’s Foster who bears overall responsibility that the work be done in the prescribed manner. I would require massive amounts of coffee to stay awake long enough to read all that stuff, and to remember it? Wow! Talk about a photographic memory!
Not only must engineers consider gravel and asphalt quality, culverts and elevations, they must consider things natural, like diamondback terrapins and fish and, yes, osprey. In fact, there are prohibitions on when work can be done on this project so it will not impact the fish, crawling creatures and birds. It’s not exactly like fighting with one arm tied behind your back, but almost. If an Eastern tiger salamander held up a county college for a number of years, why shouldn’t their relatives slow a road project that could safely get people off a barrier island?
If the same environmental regulations were in place when interstate highways were built across America, the only way to get from here to the Pacific would still be Route 30, with all its twists and turns, hills and valleys, from Atlantic City to Astoria, Ore.
As Foster pointed out, one of the biggest reasons the project won $1.6 million in federal funding was because it is the resort’s sole means of escape from the terrors of nature. Other resorts have two ways in and out, not so with Sea Isle City. Thus, when storms rage and tides rise, as they surely will in the coming years given global warming and the sea level hike, the present road would be impassable.
Up 4.5 feet will make the road high and dry for escapees. Such safety comes at a cost to the land, and it’s calculated down to the square centimeter. Enter the word “mitigate.” When such a project destroys freshwater wetlands, two square feet of new wetlands must be created for each square foot of land destroyed. For saltwater wetlands, it’s a one for one destroys-create order.
Don’t expect the job completed in two shakes of a lamb’s tail, oh no. Given all the parameters under which construction must take place, I can only hope to live long enough to see the dedication. Huge steel electric poles have already replaced wooden ones; a larger gas line will be put underground. It is expected by fall of this year work will begin. That initial phase will be to put down fill for one roadbed. That fill must settle for a year. Then, the other lane gets the same treatment, another year will pass.
An assortment of prohibitions exist because of migrating fish, turtles, and, no work may proceed within 1,000 feet of an osprey nest during designated times of the year. Also, to be critter friendly, culverts about six feet across, are to be placed so that terrapins, discouraged from crossing the highway, and thus endangering their little lives, will be free to pass under and lay eggs somewhere else.
In jest, Leonard Desiderio, Sea Isle City’s mayor and freeholder vice director, asked Foster if signs were to be placed so the terrapins might know where to find the culverts. “They didn’t ask us to light the thing (culvert),” replied Foster with a smile. Will terrapins file suit or don’t they wander at night? It’s surprising that aspect isn’t covered in paperwork.
This should be quite an engineering feat, almost on scale of railroads. Come to think of it, could they be built today with the same regulations set forth for the Sea Isle City Boulevard project?