I was reading on nycroads.com, an article about a proposed "Raritan Bay Bridge", from the Keyport area near GSP Exit 118, to Staten Island, where it would link up with the West Shore Expressway. Anyone have more info on this project? I am very interested since I live nearby.
Thank you,
Mike
Quote from: njunderground on February 20, 2017, 08:46:09 PM
I was reading on nycroads.com, an article about a proposed "Raritan Bay Bridge", from the Keyport area near GSP Exit 118, to Staten Island, where it would link up with the West Shore Expressway. Anyone have more info on this project? I am very interested since I live nearby.
Thank you,
Mike
I am glad this never got built. Monmouth and Ocean Counties did not need throngs of Staten Islanders moving down in the 1960s
LGMS428
I have at least a proposal of this dating back to July 1931. Obviously none of the limited-access freeway/parkways existed, but still the same ideas, Tottenville to Keyport.
One thing i love about the early 20th century is they made proposals that seem impossible to consider today. Imagine trying to build Ben Franklin Bridge, Hoover Dam, Lincoln Tunnel or Golden Gste Bridge now...
Thebprice wojld be astronomical and enviromental and comminity opposition would kill any proposal if cost did not
LGMS428
It does seem as though the West Shore's southern end was poised to continue at full steam in Keyport's direction, doesn't it?
Well, they did build a new bridge at Hoover Dam just 10 years or so ago!!
I always envisioned a bridge across the mouth of New York Bay going from Sandy Hook to either Brooklyn or even Rockaway when I was a kid. Just think how fast you could get to Kennedy Airport from Monmouth County and it would even be closer than EWR, especially from Highlands, or even Long Branch.
You'd have a great eastern bypass of most of NYC if a bridge were built from Sandy Hook to Bay Parkway paired with a Long Island Sound crossing.
That you would have been right. Being able to get to Westchester from Monmouth via Long Island would have been nice.
I am surprised Robert Moses did not come up with that idea, unless he did and it got shot down like I-78 and the I-495 missing link across Manhattan.
Quote from: jwolfer on February 22, 2017, 03:13:32 PM
One thing i love about the early 20th century is they made proposals that seem impossible to consider today. Imagine trying to build Ben Franklin Bridge, Hoover Dam, Lincoln Tunnel or Golden Gste Bridge now...
Thebprice wojld be astronomical and enviromental and comminity opposition would kill any proposal if cost did not
LGMS428
Agreed. America has really lost that "can-do" spirit.
Quote from: compdude787 on February 26, 2017, 02:34:44 PM
Quote from: jwolfer on February 22, 2017, 03:13:32 PM
One thing i love about the early 20th century is they made proposals that seem impossible to consider today. Imagine trying to build Ben Franklin Bridge, Hoover Dam, Lincoln Tunnel or Golden Gste Bridge now...
Thebprice wojld be astronomical and enviromental and comminity opposition would kill any proposal if cost did not
LGMS428
Agreed. America has really lost that "can-do" spirit.
When it comes to highways, it became fashionable in many parts of the U.S. to oppose highway projects for reasons of air quality and land use changes.
Air quality (in particular NOX and ground-level ozone) are much less of a problem now than they were 15 or 20 years ago, and I think even CO2 emissions from motor vehicles will start to decline at some point.
So that leaves land use impacts, which many elected officials try to use for reasons having little to do with traditional zoning and permitting. But in most of the U.S., such efforts are also doomed to fail, thanks to the local nature of land use regulations and the ability of citizens to "leapfrog" over restrictive land use ordinances and rules.
You can't build a highway, but you sure could put up a big box retail establishment or even another redundant strip mall.
Considering that parking lots due more damage to the ecosytem that roads do, it should not be an issue with environmentalists these days. Plus the ground does not retain the water when it has a layer or two of asphalt on it in Wal Marts giant parking lots while the water that does fall on it is diverted to storm drains that take it to the nearest stream to river and then in the Ocean.
I would say building another crossing over the Kull is less impact to the eco environment than them putting in new condos or apartments along the waterfront.
My take is to extend the NJ Transit Light Rail across the Kill Van Kull onto Staten Island and terminate it at the St. George Ferry Terminal. This way Staten Islanders can have another option to get into Manhattan via Jersey City and Bayonne.
Quote from: compdude787 on February 26, 2017, 02:34:44 PM
Quote from: jwolfer on February 22, 2017, 03:13:32 PM
One thing i love about the early 20th century is they made proposals that seem impossible to consider today. Imagine trying to build Ben Franklin Bridge, Hoover Dam, Lincoln Tunnel or Golden Gste Bridge now...
Thebprice wojld be astronomical and enviromental and comminity opposition would kill any proposal if cost did not
Agreed. America has really lost that "can-do" spirit.
It seems to me that we haven't lost anything so much as we've gained red tape that makes it a lot easier to block a project than it used to be. Great public works projects of the earlier 20th century all had their opponents, the difference is that they generally didn't get their way. In those days, if you didn't like a project, you could organize a protest, you could call your elected officials, and you could maybe get the local papers to print negative stories, but ultimately you had to rely upon making folks in government fear being voted out of office to get anywhere unless you happened to be well-connected. Today, there are a jillion reasons you can find to file a lawsuit against a project, which is far more effective at derailing it than any of the previous methods and makes it such that to actually build something you have to either be real good at making sure every i is dotted and t crossed, or go out of your way to avoid pissing off even a single person who's willing to hire a lawyer.
If we want the can-do attitude of building back, the only way to achieve that is through tort reform that stops all the lawsuits against public works projects.
I don't find the Outerbridge Crossing to I-278 too bad. I just wish there was a reasonable alternative across the LI Sound somewhere east of the Throgs Neck Bridge. Something like connecting I-287 to NY 135. Getting to the GWB from Long Island always sucks.
I think now that extending the West Shore Expressway across Raritan Bay to Keyport and building the defunct Route 74 for it to tie in would be an excellent overall commuter route for Central Middlesex into Staten Island and Brooklyn.
Heck, Route 440 could be its numbering and I-287 get more mileage as it could take over NJ 440 in Edison, Woodbridge, and Perth Amboy and across the Outerbridge Crossing and end at the Westshore.
Quote from: Duke87 on March 02, 2017, 08:10:54 PM
Quote from: compdude787 on February 26, 2017, 02:34:44 PM
Quote from: jwolfer on February 22, 2017, 03:13:32 PM
One thing i love about the early 20th century is they made proposals that seem impossible to consider today. Imagine trying to build Ben Franklin Bridge, Hoover Dam, Lincoln Tunnel or Golden Gste Bridge now...
Thebprice wojld be astronomical and enviromental and comminity opposition would kill any proposal if cost did not
Agreed. America has really lost that "can-do" spirit.
It seems to me that we haven't lost anything so much as we've gained red tape that makes it a lot easier to block a project than it used to be. Great public works projects of the earlier 20th century all had their opponents, the difference is that they generally didn't get their way. In those days, if you didn't like a project, you could organize a protest, you could call your elected officials, and you could maybe get the local papers to print negative stories, but ultimately you had to rely upon making folks in government fear being voted out of office to get anywhere unless you happened to be well-connected. Today, there are a jillion reasons you can find to file a lawsuit against a project, which is far more effective at derailing it than any of the previous methods and makes it such that to actually build something you have to either be real good at making sure every i is dotted and t crossed, or go out of your way to avoid pissing off even a single person who's willing to hire a lawyer.
If we want the can-do attitude of building back, the only way to achieve that is through tort reform that stops all the lawsuits against public works projects.
Totally agree with you 100%.