(May 13, 2008) -- Warren County’s transportation needs got a closer look from the new head of the New Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) in a tour led by Freeholder Director John DiMaio and other officials.
NJTPA Executive Director Mary K. Murphy spent the day learning about projects important to the County, such as the extension of passenger rail service and safety improvements to roads and intersections, said Freeholder Director DiMaio.
“We lined up a tour of pending needs – some that aren’t even in plans yet – and recently completed projects,” DiMaio said. “We’re very grateful that Mary came out here to look at all the Warren County needs.”
The NJTPA is the entity through which federal transportation money is allocated for transportation projects in the region. DiMaio, a member of the NJTPA Board of Trustees since 2001, is the agency’s Second Vice-Chairman and chairs its Planning and Economic Development Committee.
DiMaio said the NJTPA’s executive committee wanted to reach out to mayors and other officials “to let people know we’re there” and what the organization does. Murphy offered to go to each of the sub-regions – the 13 counties and two cities that comprise the NJTPA’s area – to familiarize herself with the projects and inform officials about NJTPA’s role in funding transportation work.
Warren County Planning Director David Dech and Freeholder Director John DiMaio show the remnants of Morris Canal Plane 9 West to Mary K. Murphy, Executive Director of the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, during a tour of transportation project sites in Warren County. The inclined plane site is preserved by the county as an historic site representing Warren’s rich transportation heritage, but the tour also focused on pending transportation needs.
The tour included a look at extending passenger rail service to Phillipsburg, either through the Washington Secondary – which runs from Hackettstown through Washington Borough, parallel to Route 57 – or on the Raritan Valley Line through Hunterdon County.
|
|
DiMaio said the tour also visited the Hackettstown Train Station with Hackettstown Mayor Michael Lavery, where the proposed “transit oriented design village” was discussed.
In Allamuchy, Mayor Robert Resker and representatives of the fire and rescue departments discussed the need for an emergency on-ramp for first responders to access Interstate Route 80. First responders feel hampered by the roundabout route they must take to get from their stations to the Exit 19 interchange when there is an emergency on the interstate, but an emergency access point at Alphano Road would greatly decrease response times.
Other locations on the tour included:
- The proposed Route 57 bypass from Mountain Avenue in Hackettstown to Route 46 in Washington Twp., Morris County.
- The “five corners” area in Hackettstown, where County Route 604 and Route 46 meet.
- The intersection of Route 57 and Route 31 in Washington Borough, as well as pedestrian improvements along Route 57.
- The intersection of Routes 57 and 519 in Lopatcong, which consistently rates high on the list of spots with the most traffic accidents in the county each year.
- The intersection of Routes 22 and 519 on the border of Greenwich and Pohatcong townships, which also is one of the county’s top traffic trouble spots each year.
- The Morris Canal portal at Phillipsburg.
- Hope Village, where heavy truck traffic has been a continuing problem for the 18th-Century buildings.
- The Lackawanna Cutoff and its Viaduct in Knowlton, where the reintroduction of passenger rail service is under consideration.
- The Park and Ride lot at Route 521 in Hope Township, near Route 80.
- The new weigh stations on Interstate Route 78 in Greenwich, where Lt. Jeffrey McCarthy of the New Jersey State Police gave a complete tour of the high-tech facility.
Aspects of the County’s rich history regarding transportation were discussed, as officials highlighted the Lackawanna Cutoff rail route, the Morris Canal, and the location of the first concrete highway in New Jersey, a portion of Route 57 made using cement from Thomas Edison’s plant in Warren County. The tour also included the county’s Morris Canal Park at Plane 9 West in Greenwich, where the Jim and Mary Lee Museum is located in what was the plane tender’s house and later the home of the noted canal historian, Jim Lee.
DiMaio said he hoped the tour created some awareness among the county’s mayors “that we are the agency that directs the federal dollars for programs in the northern part of the state.”
|