Sen. Booker joins effort for Rt. 80 rockfall impact study

KNOWLTON - New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and several municipalities in Pennsylvania have become the latest to call for a full environmental impact study for New Jersey Department of Transportation’s plans to keep rocks from falling onto Interstate 80.

In a recent letter to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Booker wrote “given the high level of public interest,” he asked FHWA to work with NJDOT to conduct a more comprehensive environmental impact study.

“This greater analysis would provide additional opportunities for public input for the already robust public record, further consideration of the project’s merits in protecting the public, and a cumulative review of the impacts to the surrounding communities,” Booker said.

At their last meeting in May, the Board of Supervisors for Upper Bethel Township, and the adjoining Portland Borough Council, approved their own resolutions calling on the FHWA to require an impact study be done. Previously there have been similar requests from other municipalities, county governments, state and federal elected officials as well as environmental groups and local business associations.

Because the project, now estimated to cost about $60 million, is being funded through the FHWA, that arm of federal government can order a more thorough look be taken at the state’s plans.

Knowlton Mayor Adele Starrs said she has been in contact with the FHWA and along with Hardwick Mayor Kevin Duffy made a trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with officials there.

She said when the DOT releases its Environmental Assessment, it will contain a recommendation for further study or a Finding of No Significant Impact.

The FHWA is the arbiter and decides whether to accept that finding or not and would use social, economic, and community impacts to determine if a “no significant impact” is warranted.

“So it would be highly suspicious if the NJDOT concludes that there is No Significant Impact if they have received letters from state legislators and federal representatives as well as letters from hundreds of residents all across the United States asserting the opposite and requesting further study in an EIS,” Starrs said.

The project was first proposed more than a decade ago, when its cost was estimated to be about $7 million. According to the DOT, its analysis showed the face of Mount Tammany, which forms the New Jersey side of the Delaware Water Gap, has the highest potential for rockfall incidents of any spot in New Jersey.

A 2010 study looked at several potential solutions to mitigate rocks falling onto the four lanes of Interstate 80, built more than a half century ago, and tucked up against the base of the mountain’s cliffs.

However, it has only been in the last three years, as the state became more serious about the project that local officials and the public became more aware of the potential consequences of construction disruption and long-lasting impacts the project would have on the water gap as a geological wonder, and the state and federal parks..

The Mount Bethel supervisors said the federal Environmental Protection Act requires an environmental impact study for projects that “significantly affect the quality of the human environment.”

In addition to the “quality of life” for its residents and those of surrounding towns, the project will also affect “the culturally and historic area of the Delaware Water Gap and its geologic, watershed and recreation areas along with creating a loss of tourism for the Pocono Mountain area” of Pennsylvania.

Among historic sites that may be disrupted or disturbed is the Appalachian National Scenic Trail which comes from the top of Mount Tammany, down into the water gap near the river’s level then back up to the top of the gap’s companion peak, Mount Minsi, on the Pennsylvania side.

The New Jersey Office of Historic Preservation has already said a further study needs to be done by DOT because the trail goes through and overlooks the project area.

DOT’s preferred alternative would cut back up to 30 feet of the cliffs - which has drawn the ire of a national cliff climbers association - and erect at steel mesh fence which would be 50-60 feet high in some areas.

As a way of gauging the visual impact, an average trailer truck is about 13.5 feet tall.

Another area of talus (ancient rock slides) would be reinforced with a 60-foot tall concrete pyramid.

The work would take four to five years with the already narrow interstate traffic lanes narrowed even more.

The work is being done between mile posts 0.7 and 1.4, an area known as the S-curve and which local officials say is the real problem, not falling rocks.

DOT claims there have been a dozen incidents, including one fatal, from fallen rocks in that area.

The DOT has refused to provide any details on the fatal accident.

The I80DWGCoalition, a local citizens group formed last year which opposes the projects, said it has received 633 accident reports from NJ State Police on that section of road, and most of the crashes were caused by speed or driver inattention when going through the S-curve.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, from New Jersey’s 5th District, has filed a formal request with the House of Representatives appropriations committee to place a hold on use of any federal funds and to not include the rockfall project in the upcoming federal budget.

A member of that committee, Matt Cartwright, represents Pennsylvania’s 8th District, which includes part of the Delaware Water Gap region.