Turnpike officially cancels Route 92 project
By: Joseph Harvie, Staff Writer
South Brunswick Post, 12/04/2006
The N.J. Turnpike Authority has withdrawn applications for wetlands
permits for the proposed toll road.
After years of debates, studies and
engineering reports, the N.J. Turnpike Authority has officially
canceled the proposed Route 92 project.
The N.J. Turnpike Authority, in a Dec. 1 letter to the state Department
of Environmental Protection, said it has decided to shift its focus from the
proposed 6.7-mile limited-access toll road to a planned widening of the
Turnpike from exits 6 to 9.
"Now that we are moving forward on the
widening project — the largest expansion of the Turnpike since it was
built over 50 years ago — we have decided to cancel the Route 92
project," Turnpike Executive Director Michael Lapolla said in
the letter.
The letter was sent to the DEP to officially
withdraw applications for wetlands and stream-crossing permits
needed from the agency to allow it to build the road.
The decision to withdraw permit requests and cancel the project came a
year after the Turnpike Authority shifted $175 million of the $181
million set aside for Route 92 to the widening project.
South Brunswick Mayor Frank Gambatese
called the Turnpike's decision good news. He said Monday that the end
of Route 92 is a victory for the township.
"This is what we've been waiting for,
for the past 14 years," Mayor Gambatese said. "Not only has the road been de-funded, the
Turnpike is saying, now, not to build the road."
He said that the cancellation of the
project would also put about 100 acres in the right-of-way for the
proposed road near Friendship Road, back into the hands of farmers.
In addition, he said it could free up
other land set aside for the project.
"Now they can do some planting, and it
frees up the rest of the land that was set aside for the road," Mayor
Gambatese said.
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