N.J. Borrows $1.4B To Widen Highway, How It Affects Your Local Moving Company
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority has two main projects in its hands. The first one is to widen the Turnpike for over 35 miles and the second one is to remove Garden State Parkway’s sole traffic lights. According to the latest Moving Industry News that would affect movers in many different ways, the Authority would borrow almost $1.4 billion so that the projects don’t stop midway.
The Chief Financial Officer of the Authority, Donna Manuelli said that expenses at the rate of $80 million per month would finish its current finances in a few months as the authority has just $280 million at present. The widening project for the Turnpike would create 6 lanes for the highway in both directions between the Exit 6 in Burlington County’s Mansfield Township and New Brunswick’s Exit 9.
This project would eliminate a bottleneck known as “The Merge” that has been a cause of concern for the moving industry as it turned the Turnpike from 6 lanes to 5 at Exit 9, which further shrunk to 3 in Cranbury’s Exit 8A. It is worth noting that this $2.5 billion project is the largest in the over-a-century history of the N.J. authority.
The second major part of the project is removing the lone traffic lights at Garden State Parkway. The sudden appearance of the traffic lights on the otherwise free-flow Parkway has caused a large number of fatal accidents. According to the latest Moving Industry News feed, the industry would also be affected by other projects including interchange enhancement, bridge work and restoring a road shoulder.
The overall budget approved for the capital projects was $7 billion in 2008. N.J. received $1.75 billion in 2009 and $1.85 billion the following year. The authority re-financed $600 million in credit so as to make the most of the attractive interest rates that could save it more than $25 million. For 2012, the authority raised $1.6 billion in revenue that matched its projects despite Hurricane Sandy affecting traffic and the moving industry.
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