Elevated Highway Still Environmental Nightmare

To The Editor:
State Sen. Jeff Van Drew and State Assemblymen Matt Milam and Nelson Albano have put a new spin on promoting the Route 55 extension.
The latest assertion is that by making the proposed 20-mile extension from Maurice River Township to the Garden State Parkway in Dennis Township an elevated highway, there will be no harm to the environment, as if by magic, the concrete highway could just be dropped into place from the sky. Building an elevated highway is still an environmental nightmare. The route and size of the highway would be the equivalent of 2,400 football fields laid end to end. All vegetation in that path would have to be removed. Each pier supporting the highway would need concrete footings poured in forms to depths ranging from 60 feet to 110 feet or more. Drilling rigs, big excavators, supply trucks, concrete trucks, and monstrous cranes would need access to each and every footing along the roadway.
Imagine the devastation to the plants, animals, and natural resources in these five miles of pristine wetlands. Also imagine the negative impacts on the Belleplain State Forest and Dennis Creek Wildlife management area and everywhere in between. I shudder when I think of it.
Another point that Van Drew fails to realistically report is the estimate of cost, which proponents have billed as $1 billion. Considering that a six-mile elevated highway in Alabama, without the environmental constraints, was recently built for $410 million, the 20-mile Route 55 extension would come in at no less than $2 billion. And won’t the public be pleased to know that this extension would be a toll road?
The solution to the 200-300 hours per year of traffic congestion is simple.
The November, 1998 South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization’s report named one alternative as making Route 47 have a reversible third lane. Very little actual construction is necessary and the impact on the environment and taxpayer pocketbooks would be minimal. Have two lanes southbound on Fridays and Saturdays, then two lanes northbound on Sundays and Mondays.
Part Two of the solution is already in the works. The Garden State Parkway will have the three traffic lights (Exits 11, 10 and 8) removed around 2018 – give or take a year – and that will end the frustrating traffic backups. Visitors and locals will quickly figure out it’s easier to take the Atlantic City Expressway to the GSP to get non-stop from Philly to Cape May County.
All in all, these suggestions could be done in two or three years and the burden on taxpayers would be much less.
ANGELA JONES
Vineland