The NJ Turnpike Authority wants to spend $10.7 billion to widen the I-78 Turnpike through Hudson County

Poisons the air: Hudson County is a dense urban area that already has one of highest asthma rates in the state. The amount of added exhaust fumes, fine particulates, and tire dust that will be added to the air is a public health emergency. I78 has dozens of schools along it whose children are being sentenced to respiratory problems.

Harms the climate: Governor Murphy set a goal to reduce greenhouse emissions 50% of 2006 by 2030. By expanding a highway to have more cars and truck sit in traffic, spewing emissions NJTA and NJDOT directly undermine that directive. Environmental groups have filed a petitions against the NJTA for not following the executive order.

Makes traffic worse: The NJTA will tell you that this project is meant to alleviate traffic. Decades of research, however, tell us that wider roads lead to more traffic. Making the claim even more preposterous is that I78 ends at the Holland Tunnel which is not getting any wider. More cars in even more gridlock. That’s what NJTA wants.

Direct attack on environmental justice communities: Not only does this run through some of the densest neighborhoods of the state, but it includes many designated environmental justice communities by the state of NJ. These are low income, minority communities that have already been overburdened by pollution and waste resulting from projects exactly like this one.

Empower NJ Files Petitions Demanding that NJ DOT and Turnpike Authority Take Action

EmpowerNJ has filed legal rule-making petitions with the Turnpike Authority and NJDOT documenting the failure of those agencies to comply with the Governor's Executive Order to reduce carbon emissions,

 

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The petitions also demand

  • an immediate halt to the $4.7 billion Turnpike Expansion in Jersey City;
  • that the agencies prioritize public transportation, repair projects, safe street projects, bikeways and walkways over highway expansions; and
  • the rejection of projects that disproportionately harm already overburdened communities.
Our Petitions and State Responses

See our Transportation Fact Sheet here.

 

In the Press

 

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