State Transportation Commissioner Jack Lettiere said officials had relied on the "fix-it-first" principle when crafting the budget, pouring hundreds of millions into maintaining and improving roads and bridges and tracks, and buying replacement transit vehicles, instead of expanding roadway capacity.
"We now have a march uphill to keep the system in good repair so that's where we focused our efforts," Lettiere said.
Included in the budget, which will be inserted into the state budget for consideration and passage, is more than $125 million for local road and bridge projects. Almost $73 million has been earmarked for projects in Camden County, $43.8 million for Burlington County, and nearly $10 million for Gloucester County.
There is money for an overpass linking the BP redevelopment site in Paulsboro with I-295, and for improving connections between I-295 and Route 38 in Mount Laurel, and between I-295 and Route 42 in Bellmawr.
What is unclear, however, is where the money is going to come from to finish those and other projects when the coming fiscal year ends June 30, 2006.
That is when transportation experts say the New Jersey Transportation Fund, the state's major transportation capital account, will run out of money without a major infusion of cash.
Damien Newton of the watchdog Tri-State Transportation Campaign called the proposed capital budget "a good plan, overall."
"But if the Legislature doesn't take this seriously, this could be it," said Newton, whose group monitors transportation spending and advocates reduced reliance on automobiles in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. "Next year, [funding] literally goes to zero."
