Parkway improvement
plan may not be lost
Officials try to negotiate improvements without affecting Ernston Road
By jennifer dome
Staff Writer

Borough and state officials are working to keep a Garden State Parkway improvement plan afloat despite a recent action by the Sayreville Borough Council.

Earlier this month, the council’s Democratic majority — amid objections from Republicans — tabled a plan that would have resulted in $50 million in changes to parkway access points in the borough. Republican Mayor Kennedy O’Brien felt the council should approve the plan before the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike authorities merged earlier this month, something that raised questions over whether the project could still be completed.

However, Council President Thomas Pollando and fellow Democratic state Assemblyman John Wisniewski recently met with parkway officials and state Department of Transportation Commissioner Jack Lettiere to discuss the improvements.

"We’re going to try to resurrect it," Pollando said about the parkway proposal.

The Turnpike Authority, which now controls the parkway, will agree to move forward with the proposal, with the exception of a component that called for controversial new ramps at the Ernston Road entrance and exit, Pollando said.

"They were very receptive," Pollando said.

"It will not be easy to get the turnpike and parkway to invest $50 million in Sayreville’s future, but we hope to find ways to make it happen," said Wisniewski, who heads the Assembly Transportation Committee and serves as the borough’s Democratic Party chairman.

The parkway improvement was the subject of three years of negotiations between Sayreville and parkway officials, Borough Engineer David Samuel said at a July 2 meeting.

One component of the proposal calls for the construction of additional lanes at Exit 123, designed to relieve traffic congestion going to and from Route 9, Samuel said.

A north and south interchange would be built at Chevalier Avenue, which is at Exit 125, and a full interchange would be added on the site of an abandoned Conrail line near Kennedy Drive, thus creating an Exit 124.

The Parkway Authority had also requested the construction of entrance and exit ramps from Ernston Road to the Cheesequake Service Area. According to Samuel, this part of the overall project would only take place after the Route 9 improvements were completed. It includes the installation of a traffic light on Ernston Road, making the street safer to cross.

The council voted 4-2, along party lines, to table the plan at the July 2 meeting.

Pollando and fellow Democratic council members Phyllis Batko, Dennis Grobelny and Thomas Marcinczyk tabled the proposal after hearing from residents of the Ernston Road area. The new ramps to the Parkway from Ernston Road would be installed near the Eisenhower Elementary School and the Carriage House Manor nursing home.

Citing a traffic study conducted on behalf of the Parkway Authority in July 2001, Samuel said the traffic on Ernston Road is expected to decrease significantly since a large number of cars traveling between 7 and 9 a.m. on that road were headed to the Parkway.

However, several borough residents questioned the validity of the traffic study because it was completed two years ago and during the summer months. The residents said it does not take into account the traffic that occurs during the school year.

Other borough residents were upset that the July 2 meeting to discuss the Parkway Authority’s proposal was not advertised sooner so that more residents could express opinions.

Following the July 17 meeting with the Turnpike Authority, Pollando said that a new traffic study should be conducted and that affected residents should receive adequate notice before the Ernston Road portion of the proposal is considered in the future. Pollando said he will know about the Turnpike Authority’s intentions for Exit 123 and 124 after the authority’s August meeting.

O’Brien said the Parkway Authority only agreed to the proposal shortly before the July 2 meeting. He said that while the borough had the chance to accept the improvements on July 2, there was a threat of losing that opportunity after the merger with the Turnpike Authority.

O’Brien said the vote to table the proposal was an "irresponsible action." He said the Parkway Authority’s proposal to build an exit at Chevalier Avenue would give better access to the adjacent redevelopment area and add at least $100 million worth of tax ratables to the National Lead site, resulting in $3 million in new tax revenue annually.

The Sayreville Economic Redevelopment Agency (SERA) has attempted to gain control of the approximately 400 acres owned by National Lead Industries along the Raritan Bay waterfront for several years.

SERA hopes to clean up and redevelop the site that National Lead used for paint pigment production until the corporation closed its manufacturing plant in 1982.

While SERA appraisers have said the National Lead land is worth $32 million, the agency has previously offered to buy the property for $4 million, saying that it will cost $28 million to clean it up. National Lead representatives meanwhile contend that the property is worth at least $100 million.

At a June 26 SERA meeting, a waterfront sports complex with a minor league baseball stadium, arena, hotel and convention center, upscale retail stores and a marina with ferry service to New York was proposed for the National Lead site as part of an estimated $250 million plan by Global Redevelopment Corp. (GRC) of Newark.

GRC’s trademark "Arenum" — part 8,500-seat indoor arena, part 5,500-seat stadium — would become a venue for concerts, indoor football, basketball, ice hockey and minor league baseball, according to Peter English, the company’s vice president.