State: Main St. Bypass plans remain deficient

The state has again deemed Sayreville’s permit applications for the controversial Main Street Bypass project to be incomplete and deficient.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) notified the borough in December that there were 37 deficiencies in relation to the bypass plans. Those were to be addressed within 60 days. After reviewing Sayreville’s response to those issues, the DEP sent a letter to the borough in February indicating that 15 deficiencies remain.

“They reviewed what we submitted and it raised more questions in their eyes,” said Jay Cornell, borough engineer.

The borough applied to the DEP’s Land Use Regulation Program for the permits on Oct. 14. The applications are for flood hazard area verification, flood hazard individual permit, freshwater wetlands individual permit, and waterfront development permits.

The DEP gave Sayreville an additional 60 calendar days from Feb. 2 to address the remaining deficiencies. The borough has asked for an extension, saying that it did not receive the letter until the end of February. However, if the deficiencies are not addressed by the end of April, the application could be canceled.

Some required materials that the borough still needs to provide include a plan that depicts all proposed temporary and permanent vegetation disturbance, a mitigation plan that proposes to mitigate for the loss of any coastal wetlands affected by the proposed project, and information on how the proposed roadway will positively and negatively affect existing conditions at eight intersections on Main Street.

Also, according to the DEP’s letter, the borough “has not demonstrated how the proposed roadway will serve to alleviate traffic congestion on Main Street.” Relief of traffic along Main Street has been the crux of borough officials’ argument in favor of the bypass proposal.

Cornell’s firm, CME Associates, submitted a traffic study in January, reviewing alternatives to the bypass, the engineer said.

“We thought [the traffic study] had addressed everything they asked for, but now they’re asking for additional things,” Cornell said. The bypass road has been planned to function as the borough’s primary east-west route, running alongside the Raritan River and parallel to Main Street. Officials have said for years the road is necessary to alleviate rushhour traffic on Main Street, Washington Road and other roads that connect the area’s major thoroughfares. However, many residents have expressed opposition, saying the road will have adverse effects on their neighborhoods.

Environmental organizations have opposed the bypass as well due to the impact it could have on the environment. The road is to be constructed in areas where there are wetlands and endangered species, according to the groups. The Edison Wetlands Association, New Jersey Sierra Club, NY/NJ Baykeeper, New Jersey Conservation Foundation and Raritan Riverkeeper slammed the bypass plan in a lengthy letter sent to the DEP earlier this month. The letter outlines numerous environmental impacts that the groups said remain unaddressed, including the impact on endangered and threatened species, wildlife and marshes.

According to Cornell, the borough addressed all the environmental issues requested by the DEP in the first letter. The DEP is now seeking “clarification or additional information” about those impacts, he said.

The environmental groups also pointed out that “there is no traffic study to support the contention that there is an issue with traffic congestion on the existing Main Street,” nor one to show how the bypass would alleviate congestion.

The bypass would stretch from the intersection of River Road and Sayreville Boulevard eastward to the existing end of Kimball Drive East, following pre-existing easements owned by the Middlesex County Utilities Authority. The plans call for a two-lane, 36-footwide road with sidewalks on both sides. It would be constructed in two one-mile sections that would connect the three portions of roadway that have already been constructed by private developers. The existing sections of the road, which total about a half-mile, would act as fixed points that are to be connected, according to the permit application.

The first section would connect the existing portion of the bypass that is located 800 feet from the Sayreville Boulevard and River Road intersection, eastward to the existing portion of the bypass located at Boehmhurst Avenue and Sayreville Boulevard. The second section would stretch from the existing portion of bypass located about 600 feet east of the intersection of Wickshire and Sayreville boulevards and continue eastward to the existing end of Kimball Drive East. A later phase of the project would run from Kimball Drive East toward Chevalier Avenue. That section would run parallel to the Main Street Extension. The borough will have to apply for new permits once that portion of the road has been designed.

The bypass would also connect to pre-existing adjacent roads in T-shaped intersections, including Quaid Avenue Marsh Avenue, Boehmhurst Avenue and Kimball Drive West.

The DEP’s letter of deficiency also asked the borough to expand on the “purpose and need of connecting existing dead-end streets to the bypass road.”