SENATE TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE RESOLUTION No. 35

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: JUNE 6, 1996

      The Senate Transportation Committee favorably reports Senate Resolution No. 35.

      This resolution strongly urges the New Jersey Highway Authority, in conjunction with the Department of Transportation, to launch priority planning to develop a blueprint to bring Ocean County's transportation system into the 21st Century and therefore calls upon the Governor, the Department of Transportation and the New Jersey Highway Authority, in full partnership and cooperation with the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the 33 communities of Ocean County, to launch negotiations and intensive planning strategies to prioritize the construction of local lanes on the Garden State Parkway (hereinafter GSP) traversing the entire length of Ocean County, connecting with existing local traffic lanes in Monmouth County, and extending southward into Atlantic County or beyond, pursuant to the needs of that county based upon decisions of its officials.

      The resolution also calls upon these officials to incorporate into this modernization plan the design and construction of all partial interchanges along the GSP throughout Ocean County, including, but not limited to, interchanges at South Toms River, Lacey Township, Waretown (Ocean Township), Barnegat Township, Manahawkin (Stafford Township), and the proposed Berkeley Township link, as well as others in northern Ocean County as determined by local officials.

      The GSP, because of environmental and economic factors must, by necessity, be made to assume an even larger transportation role for the 21st Century throughout Ocean County. Although envisioned 50 years ago as a way to open up South Jersey for tourism, the GSP is today the only viable north/south highway with the infrastructure and capabilities for expansion to fulfill the transportation needs of the fastest growing region of New Jersey as we move into the 21st Century.