I may have missed it in a previous thread/post, but is this related to ongoing construction on the Newark Bay bridge? Does anyone know the purpose of that construction?

Turnpike Authority to hold public meetings on revised plans to ease congestion at Exit 14A

Published: Tuesday, July 12, 2011, 3:00 AM
By Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal

Two public meetings will be held by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority to present revised plans to relieve congestion at the Exit 14A toll plaza, above.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority is holding two public meetings this week to present revised plans to relieve congestion at the Turnpike Extension Exit 14A toll plaza.

The first meeting is on tap tonight in Bayonne, 5 to 7 p.m., at the Washington Community School Multi-Purpose room, at 191 Avenue B.

On Thursday, the authority is hosting a second meeting, 5 to 7 p.m., at School 41 in Jersey City, 59 Wilkinson Ave.
Presentations will be made at 6 p.m. at both meetings.
The plans were revised after taking into account comments from previous meetings that proposed directing container port truck traffic to Exit 14B in Jersey City.

The new plan increases the number of toll lanes at Exit 14A from 11 to 14 by removing a utility building that sits on the southeastern side of the toll plaza.

Traffic passing through Turnpike Exit 14A is expected to almost double, from 3,600 to 7,000 vehicles per hour, by 2035, NJTA spokesman Tom Feeney said.

Faced with this impending traffic nightmare, the Turnpike had to act, he said.

N.J. Turnpike changes to address congestion near Bayonne, Jersey City

Published: Thursday, June 23, 2011, 3:00 AM
By Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal

More lanes will be leading to Bayonne.

New Jersey Turnpike Authority announced plans yesterday to add three lanes to the NJ Turnpike Extension Exit 14A Toll Plaza to Bayonne to relieve traffic congestion.

Jersey City officials welcomed the news, because it represents a reversal from a previous proposal that would have routed more container port truck traffic to Exit 14B in Jersey City.

?We took into account comments at the last meetings and have come up with a different solution,? Tom Feeney, a spokesman for the NJTA said.

?The solution no longer includes Interchange 14B, and will be accomplished through improvements to 14A.?
The authority revised its proposals after ferocious opposition at a community meeting held in Jersey City in January.

The authority will host the next round of public meetings about the plan on July 12 at the Washington Community School, at 191 Avenue B in Bayonne, and July 13 at Fred Martin School 41, at 59 Wilkinson Ave. in Jersey City.
Both meetings are scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. with a presentation at 6 p.m.

The new plan increases the number of toll lanes at Exit 14A from 11 to 14 by removing a utility building that sits on the southeastern side of the toll plaza.

Feeney said the Exit 14B plan would have relieved more congestion than this latest proposal, but the authority was willing to add lanes to the 14A toll plaza to appease Jersey City residents.

?We are pleased that the NJTA recognized the harmful impacts its original proposal would have had on the residents of Jersey City and saw fit to come up with an entirely new plan to address traffic congestion at Exit 14A,? Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy said in a statement.

Traffic passing through Turnpike Exit 14A is expected to almost double, from 3,600 to 7,000 vehicles per hour, by 2035, Feeney said. Faced with this impending traffic nightmare, the Turnpike had to act, he said.

Bayonne officials are giving a cautious thumbs up.
?Our initial impression is that the latest revisions are a step in the right direction,? said Bayonne spokesman Joseph Ryan, adding that the new design would help alleviate congestion at the toll plaza, but wouldn?t cure the rush-hour bottleneck at the Newark Bay Bridge, which lies between Exit 14 and Exit 14A.

Turnpike officials said they have no plans to widen or replace the bridge because of cost. The authority expects to complete preliminary engineering and environmental impact statements this year and complete the project by 2016.

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They've gotten rid of tolls before on the northern reaches of the tpk, there used to be booths getting on northbound from rt 3. Just come up with a single charge for using the extension, and either build a new plaza near the exit 14 one, or just figure out a way to use that one, perhaps with an expansion.

There's supposed to be guys who's job it is to balance the friction crap like traffic throws into economic development and quality of life, and balance that against the cash from tolls. When I was a kid on LI, they raised the tolls on the Southern State Pkwy from $0.10 to $0.25, and it created such a ruckus they finally realized they were more trouble than they were worth, and got rid of them entirely.

Agreed Brewster. Their biggest nightmare seems to be opening new toll booths.They'd rather put all traffic miles out of their way, and distribute the gridlock than actually solve the problem. Quote: [/quote]

That's the part that doesn't make sense to me either. It's actually about 2.5 miles from the Port Jersey 14A access to Exit 14B. So every truck leaving Port Jersey will go 2.5 miles up to 14B, enter the turnpike, and come 2.5 miles back before reaching where they "should've" gotten on in the first place. So every truck is traveling an extra 5 miles here in Jersey City/Bayonne.

I recall (though I couldn't find the news article) that the Port Authority is expecting Global/MOTBY to handle 1 million TEUs of freight a year upon build-out. One TEU is equal to a little more than 2 truckloads. So roughly 500,000 truckloads of freight will come into Global/MOTBY. Let's pretend rail will take 20% of that volume (similar ratio to Port Newark/Elizabeth). So 400,000 trucks each year will pour out the gate at Global/MOTBY, and take a 5 mile ride through our fair city before exiting the Peninsula. 400,000 trucks X 5 extra miles = 2 million truck vehicle miles traveled (VMT). That's 2 million extra miles trucks will have to travel each year because they'll be using 14B instead of 14A. I'm not sure what that equates to in terms of PM emissions, CO2 emissions, NOx emissions, etc., but the figure is alarming.

14A is a nightmare (hence the reason to redesign it, right?), but I can't imagine that there's not an alternative in which we can make a new 14A work better and handle more traffic. Maybe it involves getting rid of the 53rd street spillout, maybe it involves having a dedicated truck ramp from Port Jersey into the tolls, but 2 million extra truck VMT is not a desirable option for residents in either city.

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It still does not make sense to me for the trucks coming to Bayonne port facilities to schlep 2 miles east past 14A, exit the Turnpike at 14B in JC, and then schlep back to Bayonne, through JC streets. WTF? Don't we have enough traffic and exhaust fumes?

hey lostinjc... I think I read somewhere that the plan is to add a lot more toll booths to 14B. I guess they are going to widen it ..wonder how it fits in with the pipe line plan?




Fun Fact: did you know there use to be two large rest stops with restaurants on either side of the TP? If you look at a google map they were sort of across from Bayview Park. They are long gone and I think the spots are used to store TP trucks/plows now. Any oldtimers remember them? I think they were closed because people from the hood were walking over and using them as hang outs. (not sure)

How is the exit 14B, with its three toll booths going to handle all the Bayonne Port and warehouse truck traffic?

Are they (NJTA) crazy?

They are going to send all these trucks 2 miles east (past 14A) on the Turnpike to 14B, only to have them go back through Jersey City to Bayonne?

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How many LSP or golfing events are there a year? 5? The Bayonne exit 14A is unusable every day of the work week. A traffic nightmare!!! (you people who don?t have Easy Pass are a-holes!)

To make it worse they opened up a Quick Chek with a 10 lane Quick Chek gas station and a TD Bank drive thru on the little strip of 53 th street going to the TP. Cars turning all over the place holding up traffic. Great planning.


Interesting piece and why they want it done?it is all because of the widening of the Panama Canal . Who would have thunk it!!

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/5089



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dtjcview wrote: 14B is unusable during any LSP or golfing event. An 8-year old with a crayon could easily show the turnpike folks the shortest path between the turnpike and 185. Pass out the crayons please. [/quote] You're correct, an 8 year old could do better. Check out this route for someone southbound on 440 wanting to get to the Tpk west, it looks like it was scrawled by a toddler. That's 3.5 miles of wandering and traffic instead of just an on ramp.
View Larger Map

14B is unusable during any LSP or golfing event. An 8-year old with a crayon could easily show the turnpike folks the shortest path between the turnpike and 185. Pass out the crayons please.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=40.690677,-74.085102&spn=0.012398,0.033624&t=h&z=16

I have an easy answer. Get rid of the toll booths completely on the 14 extension. Then you can put exits where they make sense rather than where you can make a toll plaza. That mess of cloverleafs and ramps down at 14A is a nightmare. Have you ever made the mistake of following the signs at Kennedy & 58th to the Turnpike? Holy crap is that insane. There should be simple on-off ramps added at Kennedy, 440 on west side and 185 on the east.

This area is simply too dense for that Turnpike toll nonsense on a 6 mile piece of highway. But the Tpk Authority could care less about traffic flow, only cashflow.

Turnpike Authority's preferred option of routing trucks through Jersey City to get to port closer to Bayonne's exit called "atrocious" and stirs outbursts during informational, "no-input" meeting criticized for lack of public outreach

Wednesday, January 19, 2011
By BRETT WILSHE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority's open house meeting for the Interchange 14A and 14B Improvement Project erupted into a raucous debate last night as Jersey City officials and residents lambasted plans to alleviate traffic congestion at the 14A exit.

Representatives from Gannett Fleming, the Turnpike Authority's contracted engineers, presented three "short-list" solutions to ease congestion around 14A.

The option favored by the Turnpike Authority would divert trucks heading toward the port to Exit 14B in Jersey City.

One of the other options would relocate the Interchange 14A toll plaza to east of Route 440, and the third would create satellite toll plazas. Both of those options were rejected by the Turnpike Authority as being unable to accommodate anticipated future traffic.

"There were no notices that they were planning to do this," said Carol Kobak, 65. "I think it's their responsibility to let people know."

Kobak lives in Port Liberte, which is adjacent to the proposed new route.

The presentation turned from civil to hostile when NJTA Supervising Engineer Steve Buente informed the crowd of about 100 in the gymnasium of Public School 41 that the presentation was to be informational and would not allow for input.

"Is this a done deal?" one crowd member shouted, followed by a chorus of outraged and frustrated interjections.

Buente said the Turnpike Authority met with business and government stakeholders to present the project and held an open house in Bayonne in December to inform the public.

But the tone was set. The rest of Buente's 30-minute presentation was interrupted by a battery of complaints, many from Hudson County's elected officials, including stateSen. Sandra Cunningham and Freeholder Jeff Dublin, who both criticized the Turnpike Authority's lack of public outreach.

"The people in this room are the biggest stakeholders in this project," Cunningham said.

Jersey City resident Jeff Kaplowitz, who lives in Society Hill, brought up concerns that the diverted trucks would create more congestion on Garfield Avenue and Route 440.

At the end of the presentation, Buente offered the microphone to Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy, who reiterated his fellow officials' demands for a formal public meeting with more publicity.

"I think it's safe to say that 99.9 percent of everyone in this room don't like this plan," Healy said. "It's atrocious. It will cause pollution, traffic on major thoroughfares, and harm incentives for nearby property development."

Buente committed to hold a formal hearing within three to four weeks.

"The purpose of tonight's meeting was to present the plans and receive feedback," Buente said. "And we received it vociferously."