THE NEW COMBINED STADIUM: The latest news - TRANSPORTATION

[BaumerJet]

Stadium rail link due for $32M boost

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

By TOM DAVIS

STAFF WRITER

A $32 million surprise from the New Jersey Turnpike Authority will help complete the rail link between the Meadowlands Sports Complex and the Pascack Valley Line, officials announced Tuesday.

Questions about where exactly the money is coming from, however, created some confusion.

Early Tuesday, Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri said the Turnpike Authority would soon receive as much as $32 million from the Port Authority that could pay for congestion relief projects such as the rail link.

But the Port Authority later said that the $32 million must pay for roadway improvements near the turnpike's Exit 16W -- and nothing else. The Port Authority's Board of Commissioners authorized that funding in June, and using that money for the rail link would be a potential violation of that agreement.

After the Port Authority's statements, Kolluri changed his explanation of the source of the $32 million. In his later comments, Kolluri said the money will come from the more than $100 million the turnpike collects from rest areas, the PNC Arts Center and other "non-toll revenue." He did not specify how much of that $100 million was already committed to other projects.

"We have the money available to make the payments to [New Jersey] Transit," Kolluri said.

Increasing congestion thanks to sports and other big events at the Meadowlands has put state officials under pressure to get vehicles off the roads around Exit 16W.

The funding for the 16W work is part of a special Port Authority fund exclusively controlled by the New Jersey governor. But Governor Corzine's spokeswoman Lilo Stainton said the administration "has not been making specific dollar decisions" regarding transportation projects such as the rail link.

It was unclear Tuesday if that contract had been finalized.

The Port Authority has already approved $150 million toward the Pascack Valley rail link construction. Work is expected to be completed by 2010.

The $182 million, 1.5 mile rail spur will connect the Pascack Valley line in East Rutherford to a new station in the Meadowlands.

The Pascack line runs from Montvale through Hackensack to Hoboken. Under the plans approved in 2004, NJ Transit was to create a project team that would include staff from the sports authority and the state Department of Transportation.

According to that earlier plan, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority will be responsible for hiring professional and construction services, and NJ Transit and the DOT will approve the design and obtain permits.

NJ Transit also will manage the funding of the project and own, operate and maintain the new link. Security and maintenance at the station will be provided by the sports authority.

Last year, the sports authority said the state would need to find $25 million to complete the project, which was originally estimated to cost $150 million. George R. Zoffinger, NJSEA president and chief executive officer, said the project's costs increase as the "price of concrete and steel go up."

"The money has to come from some place," he said. "It's the single-most important thing we'll do here ... to take people off the roads that are congested."

As part of the Exit 16W funding agreement, the Port Authority will receive land easements that will help create an emergency evacuation corridor between the Lincoln Tunnel and the Meadowlands, said Marc Lavorgna, a Port Authority spokesman.

Lavorgna said the 16W work -- including the reconstruction of ramps leading to and from the turnpike and Route 3 -- will benefit transit systems that use Port Authority facilities, such as its bus terminals.

"We authorized payment for traffic mitigation projects around 16W that have impacts on roadways that lead into our facilities," he said.

E-mail: davist@northjersey.com

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[joiseyjet]

this is why the Devils & Nets are leaving that dump & WHY CONTINENTAL Airlines has ended it`s lease of the naming rights cause these cheap Bast**** are to stupid to realize they have to give people a way to get to this place ,espescially from new jersey ,this is why more Devil fans go to watch the Devil Ranger games at the Garden then in NJ cause the train drops you right off at the garden ...