Route 92 project canceled to focus on turnpike widening
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) A long-delayed proposal to build a link between Route 1 and the New Jersey Turnpike in Middlesex County has been abandoned by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.
In a letter sent to the Department of Environmental Protection on Friday, Turnpike Executive Director Michael Lapolla said the agency was withdrawing all applications to proceed. Instead, Lapolla said the agency will use the $175 million slated for Route 92 to help pay for the widening of the turnpike from exits 6 through 9.
The 6.7-mile east-west link that would have been called Route 92 was backed in its current form by the Whitman administration in 1999. It was put on hold over, among other concerns, that it would violate clean water laws by removing nearly 15 acres of environmentally sensitive wetlands.
In the interest of timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain occasional typographical errors.