New Jersey stops 100 road, rail projects

Written by jrood

New Jersey transportation officials said Oct. 5 they had indefinitely suspended about 100 state-funded road and rail projects in their early stages as the cash-strapped state grapples with how to pay for needed infrastructure improvements over the long haul, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

The announcement came a day
after work resumed on hundreds of transportation, transit and local aid
projects that Gov. Christie’s transportation commissioner had ordered stopped
because he said the fund dedicated to pay for the work had become dangerously
low. Most of the projects resumed after lawmakers approved a $1.25-billion bond
sale to keep the work funded through spring.

Those that were put on hold
Oct. 5 are in the early phases of planning and development, and the costs and
benefits of proceeding with each project will be reviewed, officials said.

"We are taking the
prudent step of extending the hold on early planning and design work at least
until the bond sale and refinancing plan is executed," Transportation
Commissioner James Simpson said in a statement.

Simpson last week ordered
work stopped on all state-funded projects because the funding source, the
Transportation Trust Fund, was nearly depleted. The planned bond sale, which
involves refinancing existing debt at lower interest rates and new borrowing,
is expected to keep the work going through February or March.

Democrats who control the
Legislature’s Joint Budget Oversight Committee approved the bond sale
reluctantly, saying they did not want to idle construction workers.

Committee members had
refused to act on the request for temporary funding until the Christie
administration presented a long-term plan for funding infrastructure
improvements. The transportation fund has essentially run out of money for new
projects; all incoming revenue soon will be spoken for to service existing
debt.

Assembly Budget Committee
Chairman Louis Greenwald, the lone dissenting vote, said the administration is
able to raise $513 million through bonds without approval. Coupled with the $50
million still on hand, he said, the transportation fund could meet its
financial obligations of $125 million a month for a few months until a
long-term solution was presented.

Simpson said a longer-term
funding plan was being drafted, but he would not speculate on what it might
include or say exactly when it would be ready. Increasing the state’s gasoline
tax is off the table at the governor’s insistence.

NJ Transit head James
Weinstein acknowledged under recent public questioning that the administration
had discussed diverting money earmarked for a new commuter rail tunnel under
the Hudson River into Manhattan to fund state transportation improvements.

Christie has temporarily
halted new work on the $8.7-billion tunnel while his administration reviews the
project’s costs.

The governor has said he
would not authorize work to continue unless he was sure the state could pay for
its portion of the project, including overruns.

Campaigning for Republicans
in Illinois, Christie said he would meet with transportation and transit
officials in New Jersey to discuss revised cost estimates for the project.

A decision on the tunnel
could come at the end of this week or next week.

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