Bergen Arches: Good for Whom?

On Thursday, September 10, NJ-ARP met again with Hudson County citizens representatives questioning the need for a highway through the Bergen Arches rail tunnels in Jersey City -- and signed on as a member of the Hudson Alliance for Rational Transportation (HART).

Among other issues, HART questions the need for yet another highway, billed as a "local" or "New Jersey" road, that would in fact deliver traffic from throughout New Jersey via a $250 million cloverleaf connection with the New Jersey Turnpike at Allied Junction in Secaucus.

Jersey City officials appear to want it both ways, selling the "local access" to residents without explaining how -- on a bad traffic day -- such traffic would be kept separate from Manhattan-bound flows, or kept off local streets, or funneled through Jersey City neighborhoods. All this, to deliver more cars to a part of New Jersey whose population density rivals that of major Asian and European cities.

State officials, to their credit, have acknowledged they haven't even considered possible alternatives to highways (such honesty is refreshing). But NJ-ARP and others would ask that passenger rail, light rail, legitimate "local" roads, and hiking/biking trails be weighed as options.

It's worth noting, for instance, that the Bergen Arches is the width of four railroad tracks, allowing ample clearance for two possible transport uses (a truly "local" road and light rail, for example).

Also worth noting: as we noted above, both Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX Corp. are scrambling to expand rail freight capacity in New Jersey -- and the Arches are a prime route through the Palisades. Indeed, the "lower" level of the Bergen Arches already is used for freight, and expectations are that track capacity will be added there.

NJ-ARP and other HART members will begin exploring the options -- and asking the tough questions -- of those politicians who appear unaware that the Bergen Arches is still used for freight trains. Among other items, we'll continue to question why state officials, who talk the talk about "not building our way out of congestion," still appear willing to try to do just that.