At rush hour, it’s easy to mistake any highway in Bergen County for another infamously busy road—one "paved with good intentions." But unlike that well-traveled thoroughfare, it looks like Routes 3 and 17 will be repaired with local and federal tax dollars.

That’s because South Bergenite towns will get a healthy share of the $2.6 billion in construction funding being sought by the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) and the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) in 2009, according to a draft report.

The 10-year NJDOT Capital Construction Program calls for major improvements and repairs to a half dozen area road surfaces, including much-needed bridge repairs, flood alleviation, lane widening and intersection improvements. The proposal was endorsed on March 24 by the NJTPA, one of three regional authorities in New Jersey charged by Congress with coordinating transit improvement plans.

"The plan reflects our strong commitment to repair and maintenance of existing infrastructure," said NJTPA spokesman David Behrend. "Our mentality is ‘fix it first.’"

But not all in the area covered by the NJTPA will be happy with the plan, which leaves $6.72 billion worth of projects, including improvements farther north on Route 17 and Route 80, unfunded.

"Fiscally, it’s a very tight year. There is always more work that needs to get done than there is money to do it. But this is an especially bad year. That’s why there are so many unfunded projects," said Behrend.

Indeed, Bergen County Executive and NJTPA trustee Dennis McNerney said that the budget crunch could still effect approved projects, especially down the road.

"There is a big financial gap issue that the governor is going to have to work on. It is still going to be difficult [to secure funding] in the eight to ten year timeframe. Things could still change. But now we are in an okay position in terms of getting what we wanted to get," said McNerney.

Bridge repairs

An excess of $300 million is earmarked to improve several area bridges, including spans over the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers, following the recommendations of NJDOT’s Final Bridge Report and Capital Analysis of last year. The report, which gave all state bridges a "sufficiency score" between zero and 100, found both bridges "deficient" with scores of 21 and 39.5, respectively.

The most significant undertaking called for is the complete replacement of the Passaic River crossing on Route 3, which straddles the border between Rutherford, Lyndhurst and Clifton. The proposal notes that the current bridge is "both structurally deficient and functionally obsolete," and attributes high incidences of injury and accidents to the bridge’s poor geometrical design. The new bridge structure, which would cost approximately $235 million over five years, would feature three travel lanes in each direction, plus shoulders, acceleration and deceleration lanes and collector-distributor roads to facilitate local traffic.

The program also calls for $50 million over four years to design and implement repairs to the east- and westbound Route 3 bridges spanning the Hackensack River between East Rutherford and Secaucus. The project summary warns that "without major repairs, the useful service life of these structures is compromised," and concludes that rehabilitation is the only option "since the complete replacement of these structures is considered to be unfundable."

An additional $18.1 million is allocated to the replacement of the Park Avenue Bridge between Rutherford and Lyndhurst. The new bridge will include several hi-tech features, including electronic message signs, cameras and traffic sensors.

Another area bridge, The Kingsland Avenue Bridge in Lyndhurst, received a sufficiency rating of 24 from NJDOT. But that bridge falls under the jurisdiction of Bergen and Essex Counties, who are currently awaiting the results of a construction feasibility study.

Road widening, intersection improvements

A trio of projects totaling nearly $70 million will bring added lanes, new on-ramps and improved intersections to Route 17, Route 3 and Paterson Plank Road.

$18.13 million has been allocated to improve Route 17 intersections in Lyndhurst, Rutherford and East Rutherford, including dedicated turning lanes and curb cutbacks at Highland Cross and Union Avenue. The plan also includes money to update the intersections’ traffic signals.

A length of Paterson Plank Road (Route 120) from Murray Hill Boulevard to Route 17 will be widened at several intersections, and an exclusive right-turn lane will be added at the Gotham Parkway intersection to alleviate a traffic bottleneck. The project will cost an estimated $32 million through 2010.

$19.75 million has already been allocated to improve the exit ramp from Paterson Plank southbound to Route 3 East. Currently, traffic enters Route 3 to the left side, which creates problems for cars that must cross three lanes of traffic quickly to exit at Meadowlands Parkway. The problem is likely to get even worse with the opening of the Xanadu complex at the Meadowlands.

Flooding, drainage improvements

$2.5 million in state and federal funds will go toward alleviating flooding along a troublesome stretch of Route 17 between Rutherford and East Rutherford. The area, in the vicinity of the NJ Transit railroad underpass, will be outfited with additional drainage inlets and new pipe systems along the north- and southbound sides of Route 17. The new storm drainage system will be able to absorb runoff from larger "ten-year" storm events, and will even utilize specially designed valves to compensate for the effect of Meadowlands tides.

The NJDOT earmark comes in tandem with a $4.4 million contract funded by the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC) that will replace 22 culverts and tide gates throughout the Rutherford/East Rutherford Drainage System.