After a two-year delay, a study of a proposed commuter rail line between Glassboro and Camden is moving again - with the same contractor and about the same price tag as before.
A committee of the Delaware River Port Authority board today approved an $8.2 million contract for an environmental impact study of the proposed 18-mile light-rail line.
If approved by the full DRPA board, the contract would be paid for by NJ Transit, although the DRPA would oversee the work.
The environmental-impact study would be done by STV Inc., an engineering and architectural firm headquartered in Douglassville, Pa. It would take about two years.
STV was awarded a no-bid $8.9 million contract to do the study in July, 2009. The firm did about $450,000 worth of work before the study was halted by the new Christie administration, which objected to the lack of competitive bidding for the project and ordered it put out for bid.
The proposed $1.6 billion light-rail line would run alongside an existing Conrail freight line through Glassboro, Pitman, Mantua, Wenonah, Woodbury, Deptford, West Deptford, Westville, Bellmawr, Brooklawn, Gloucester City, and Camden.
It would connect to PATCO and River Line trains at the Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden, where passengers could catch trains to Philadelphia or Trenton.
The first leg of the line, from Camden to Woodbury, could be operational in about five years if financing were available, DRPA officials have said.
But that's a big if.
The DRPA has said it won't pay to build or operate the light-rail line, and NJ Transit has not committed to paying for it, either.
Jeff Nash, the Camden County freeholder who is vice chairman of the DRPA and the chairman of the agency's finance committee, said tollpayers on DRPA's four toll bridges should not be expected to pay for "a project that will be constructed and operated, directly or indirectly, by New Jersey Transit."
Also today, the finance committee approved the first step toward construction of a bicycle and pedestrian ramp on the Camden side of the Ben Franklin Bridge.
The panel OKed a plan to spend about $350,000 to design the ramp, which is expected to be built by early 2014.
The $3.2 million ramp would replace a steep staircase with 39 steps that is not handicapped accesible. The Philadelphia side has a gently ascending sidewalk that leads to the bridge's walkway.
