SENATE ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
SENATE, No. 1697
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: MAY 8, 1997
The Senate Environment Committee favorably reports Senate Bill No. 1697 with committee amendments.
This bill, with committee amendments, would restore to both the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission approval authority with respect to work undertaken by the Department of Transportation (DOT) to maintain, repair, rehabilitate, replace, design, redesign, construct, or reconstruct bridges and associated structures along or traversing the Delaware and Raritan Canal. This provision would implement one of the recommendations of the Delaware and Raritan Canal Transportation Safety Study Commission as expressed in its report submitted to the Governor and the Legislature in accordance with the provisions of sections 1 and 8 through 13 of P.L.1991, c.344. That 1991 law also essentially provided for the temporary suspension of the authority of the DEP and the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission to approve work on bridges along or traversing the canal while the study commission's report was being prepared.
As amended by the committee, the bill would also clarify and expand the division of responsibility and authority among the various governmental entities described above to include not only existing vehicle bridges, but also new vehicle bridges traversing the canal.
Finally, the bill would repeal a section of the 1991 law that (1) only required the DOT to consult with the DEP and the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission before undertaking maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, or replacement work on existing canal bridges, and (2) gave the DOT total responsibility over the design of canal bridges. These provisions are being repealed in favor of restoration of the DEP and Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission approval authority described above.
The committee amended the bill to eliminate the authority of the Department of Transportation over pedestrian bridges and to remove the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission from the group of governmental entities that have the responsibility of taking possession over vehicle bridges.