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Lacey tries to assuage opponents of detour
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LACEY TOWNSHIP - While the crumbling bridge to the Forked River Beach section of the township is being repaired, the county proposes restoring a crumbling emergency road for temporary access to the island community.
The plan has raised the ire of some residents and environmental groups, which say using the temporary road may not be safe and that it may harm endangered species. Some even think the county is in collusion with Oyster Creek Generating Station owner Exelon to develop the land.
"The whole thing is so asinine, so ridiculous, so idiotic," said Sue McManimon, who lives only 100 feet from the proposed road. "They're just trying to ram this down our throats."
Built as an evacuation route in the 1960s, the deteriorated road leads from a parking lot at the township's Clune Park to Route 9 near the main entrance to the nuclear power plant. It has been used only a handful of times, and while once paved, it is now mostly dirt and gravel.
Meanwhile, the Beach Boulevard Bridge, which is the only access to the homes there surrounded by Oyster Creek, is in a dramatic state of disrepair.
The county had to install white pylons so cars would not drive over a piece of bridge supported by a cracked support beam, and it also put a net underneath so pieces would not fall onto boaters underneath.
For some time now, the county's engineering department has assessed how it would repair the more-than-40-year-old bridge, with no perfect option presenting itself.
The other three options the county considered were closing one lane on the bridge while repairs were made or installing two different temporary bridges north of the current bridge.
Those other options would cost the county $1.4 million to $2 million more than the $6 million it has already budgeted, and more than double the project's construction time, according to county Engineer Frank Scarantino.
Nevertheless, several environmental groups have come out against the plan, mainly because they believe the county is staging a Trojan horse effort to develop the property the temporary road would run through, called Finningers Farm.
"The county is calling this road 'temporary,' and we feel that is the furthest thing from the truth," Alison Lemke, vice chairwoman of the Lacey Rail-Trail Environmental Committee, said in a statement released earlier this week. "Upon a review of the collective information, anyone can connect the dots and determine that this is the first step in a plan to develop the property."
Lemke's group, Save Barnegat Bay, The American Littoral Society and the New Jersey Sierra Club also submitted a letter to the Department of Environmental Protection opposing the plan.
But County Administrator Alan Avery said he thought much of the concerns about the plan have been made without a clear understanding of the project.
"I've read the objections and I think that they were put together a little hastily," he said. "I think if they sat down and talked with us, a lot of the issues which they raised would not have been issues."
On Thursday night, Scarantino and representatives from Birdsall Engineering, the company planning the project, held a public information session to explain the plan at the Elks Lodge on Beach Boulevard.
In front of a crowd of about 100 people, they said numerous times that as soon as the project is complete the road would have to be closed in compliance with the Department of Transportation and DEP permits they seek.
In the next few weeks, the county hopes to get permits for the project, re-pave the emergency road in the fall and begin replacing the bridge shortly after the new year begins. Scarantino said the project would be "hyper-constructed" in about five months and be ready by Memorial Day.
Scarantino also said the road, which would be aligned with the traffic light across from the power plant entrance and have a dedicated left-turn lane, would also be lit in some parts and would have cleared shoulders to make room for emergency vehicles.
He said that with those accommodations, in the county's opinion, the temporary road would be an ideal detour for the more than 8,000 cars that travel to and from the community each day.
But McManimon, who handed out fliers at the meeting encouraging residents to oppose the plan, said she felt like it was more like the residents are "being taken for a ride down here."
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Posted in Ocean on Friday, July 10, 2009 3:05 am Updated: 2:56 pm.
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