Green Jersey

Groups file suit to fight Parkway expansion

by Jennifer Weiss

A nonprofit transit watchdog group and environmental law center filed a lawsuit yesterday to stop the expansion of the Garden State Parkway in South Jersey, saying the project would encourage sprawl, threaten wildlife and increase pollution.

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign and Eastern Environmental Law Center’s suit focuses on environmental approvals  the Department of Environmental Protection granted the New Jersey Turnpike Authority for the project, which would widen the Parkway by one lane in each direction from exits 30 to 80.

The two groups say the expansion, which has the potential to impact environmentally sensitive areas like the Pinelands, isn’t justified and fails to deal with ongoing problems such as traffic congestion.

They also warned against using federal stimulus money to pay for it, something the state is seeking to do.

“Funding highway expansion projects to stimulate the economy represents a lose-lose,” Kate Slevin, executive director of the TSTC, said in a written statement on the organization’s website. “Investing in mass transit and fixing our crumbling roads and bridges will produce more jobs, reduce traffic congestion, and have less impact on our natural resources.”

DEP spokeswoman Elaine Makatura would not comment on the lawsuit because officials have yet to receive a copy, according to the Star-Ledger.

But Turnpike Authority spokesman Joe Orlando told the newspaper the projects are justified, “and we’re already investing billions of dollars in mass transit, fixing existing roads and doing the many other things they are suggesting, as well as the widening projects.”