A million-dollar study to determine the best feasible transportation use of the Bergen Arches - either a return to rail use or for a new highway - has been approved by the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority.

The NJTPA in Newark gave approval on Monday for the study that is needed to free up the first $27 million in federal funds already earmarked for the project. Total cost of converting the defunct rail bed and series of tunnels into a usable highway is estimated at $100 million.

The NJTPA is the federally funded agency overseeing more than $1 billion in transportation spending in the 13 northern counties each year. The NJTPA board of trustees consists of one local elected officials from each of the state's counties and the cities of Newark and Jersey City.

Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski, a member of the NJTPA, said the study was passed with the understanding that every transportation mode - road or rail, for moving people or freight - be included in the final report.

"They have to look at all options, whether a road, freight rail, light rail or whatever," said Janiszewski's spokesman, Jeff Jotz. "They'll have to decide whether it's best to use it to move freight or for use by commuters."

The Bergen Arches, a single-track rail bed, is currently owned by Conrail, whose operations - as of this coming June - will be divided between Philadelphia-based Norfolk Southern Corporation and Virginia-based CSX Corp. Both companies say a projected increase in freight traffic to and from the Hudson ports may force them to put the tunnels back to their old use for the first time since 1957.

Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler and Hoboken Mayor Anthony Russo have championed converting the Bergen Arches into a 2.5-mile road that would run parallel to the State Highway, then cut through Downtown near 10th Street and exit onto Newport Parkway on the Jersey City waterfront.

The mayors say the new road would let drivers bypass Holland Tunnel traffic when trying to reach places like Newport and Hoboken: New York-bound traffic would take the Depressed Highway, while the new roadway would handle only traffic headed to Downtown Jersey City or Hoboken.

Members of the recently formed Hudson Alliance for Rational Transportation, a citizens group that claims a new road would literally divide the city, fears planners will eventually seek to add more lanes to the four-lane scheme.

They also argue a new highway would undercut one purpose of building the $1.2 billion light rail system now under construction: reducing motor vehicle traffic along the waterfront.