Last week, the Jersey City city council approved $42,000 to retain Gluck Shaw, the Trenton-based consulting firm led by ex-NJDOT chief Hazel Gluck, to coordinate and help raise financing for a series of road improvement and construction projects in Hudson County including the proposed Bergen Arches highway. This follows a $65,000 contract awarded in June to an engineering firm for a conceptual study.

According to city official Liz Jeffries, the consultants' one-year scope of work includes Route 139, St. Paul's Avenue overpass, Allied Junction artery, and Bergen Arches highway projects. In addition to shaking funds loose, Gluck Shaw is expected to navigate the procedural and political quagmires of NJDOT, the Turnpike Authority, and the Port Authority.

The Bergen Arches highway would construct a new freeway from the NJ Turnpike at the Secaucus Allied Junction development site to the Jersey City waterfront and Holland Tunnel. Though discussed seriously a decade ago as part of then-Governor Kean's "Circle of Mobility" concept, remains embryonic. No environmental impact study has been begun for the highway, and ownership of the right of way is in the hands of rail giants CSX and Norfolk Southern. As reported in MTR #184, the railroads' designs for the route are not yet decided. Only $26 million is committed, though the project is estimated to cost $75 million or higher.

When asked whether alternatives to the highway would be explored, including revived freight rail or dedicated mass transit options, Ms. Jeffries stated that the only use explored to date has been a highway. The area is soon to become rich in transit lines and links with the opening of the Secaucus Transfer and the Bayonne-Hoboken phase of the Hudson-Bergen light rail line.

The Bergen Arches highway was originally announced to segregate Holland Tunnel traffic from that leading to Jersey City's booming waterfront office and residential developments. However, a recent release supplied by the city announced the project "would improve the flow of commuter traffic from western New Jersey to the Holland Tunnel and Hudson County waterfront area." * * *