Road projects on hold after TTF shutdown

NEWTON — A soft trickle of water flows under the Passaic Street Bridge, as the Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders waits for Trenton to lift the shutdown order of all N.J. road and bridge projects involving state grants.
County Engineer William J. Koppenaal gave the Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders on July 13 updates on three active Sussex County projects. He said the three included grants from the N.J. Transportation Trust Fund Authority and were affected by Gov. Chris Christie's Executive Order and N.J. Department of Transportation Commissioner's order to shutdown all projects with any TTF monies, as of July 6, until further evaluation can take place.
The three projects include: 1. Replacing the Passaic Street Bridge in Ogdensburg; construction value: around $1.4 million, with $1 million of TTF Grants, or 82 percent of the project; 2. Replacing the Roseville Road Bridge in Byram Township; construction value: $2.26 million, $1.85 million of TTF Grants, or 82 percent of the project; 3. 2015 resurfacing around 29 miles of County Routes in various townships; construction value: $6.4 million, $4.9 million of TTF Grants, or 77 percent.
Koppenaal said the project completion times will probably be longer than the time lapse from the executive order to starting the projects again, because production orders were stopped and pulled out of production queues.
“If a bridge is going to be knocked down, [Roseville Road Bridge] money should have been committed, [by the state] independent from anybody's fingers, way in advance,” resident Harvey Roseff said. “We never spend a nickel here, that it does not have certified funds,” Freeholder Director George Graham said. He also said there is a question whether the state's go ahead is certified funds or not, because this has never happened before.
Freeholder Deputy Director Carl F. Lazzaro read the million dollar costs of around 13 bus and light rail projects, put on hold, ranging from $12 million to $712 million. Lazzaro said much of the money was to go for rail in Newark. He quipped,
“I assume Newark is the center of the world for rail transportation," Lazzaro said. "Precious little of it comes up to Sussex County, and precious little of it goes into the roads and the bridges up here.”
Graham noted that every time Sussex county residents go the gas station, they pay the tax and the money largely goes to buses and rail.
“We have to find a way of bringing more money back into the roads if we're going to be paying this tax," he said.
Answers from Trenton
Communications Director of N.J. Department of Transportation Steve Schapiro wrote the money in the TTF is for either pay-as-you-go projects, or for debt service associated with bonds issued on behalf of the TTF. There are no earmarks for grants in the TTF.
Schapiro continued, as of July 8, NJDOT had $158 million in the Trust Fund. However, the Department anticipates $109 million will go toward paying bills for work completed in June and through the first week of July before the shutdown took effect. They also estimate $20 million will be necessary for a variety of emergency work.
Schapiro said it is expected all NJDOT and NJ Transit TTF funds will be encumbered by early to mid-August.