Listeners of NJ 101.5 certainly seem to agree that the state needs to continue a “fix-it-first” approach to roads and bridges that prioritizes maintenance and repair. The poll above came at the top of a 101.5 story recapping Tri-State’s annual analysis of NJDOT’s capital plan. That analysis found that in fiscal year 2012, the state would continue to spend the largest portion of its plan on road and bridge maintenance, but would also devote more than 11% of the plan to road and bridge expansion, the most in nearly a decade.
In response, NJDOT Commissioner Jim Simpson disputed TSTC’s categorization of some projects as capacity expansion, such as the I-295/I-76-Route 42 Direct Connection in Camden County. Talking to 101.5, Simpson described the project as one that would fill in a “missing section for 295.” Sounds like a project that will add new road capacity, just as Tri-State classified it.
As Tri-State’s analysis says, “Not all road expansion projects deliver negative results.” But new infrastructure adds to the state’s maintenance needs, and it’s very worrisome that the amount the state spends on road and bridge expansion has increased every year since 2009.
State Still Not Making Sense on Transit Villages
New Jersey’s explanation of why it is defunding the popular Transit Village program, which Simpson repeated on 101.5, continues to puzzle. As NJ Future puts it, the department’s line boils down to “$1 Million for Transit Villages Not Enough, So We Made It Zero“:
[Simpson] likened distributing the $1 million grant pool to “trying to spread peanut butter around the state…you really didn’t get any big bang for the buck.”
We’ve already used this space to dispel the notion that grants made under the Transit Village program are inconsequential. The short version is: The grant money provides an incentive for municipalities to participate in the program, which requires them to adopt a number of transit-friendly development policies. Without this funding … the state loses out on increased transit-oriented development and the economic activity it generates.
NJ Future also finds recent projects, in Bound Brook and Somerville, which represent just two of the many downtown redevelopment projects that have their roots in the Transit Village program.
