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Working in the Present to Protect Our Cultural Heritage for the Future |
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The League of Historical Societies of New Jersey
The League of Historical Societies of NJ, PO Box 909, Madison, NJ 07940 (973) 377-7023 |
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Preservation
Historic Rails and Rail Freight in 21st Century New Jersey by William Fidurski
The opinions expressed by William Fidurski and by any other correspondents are the opinions of those individuals and are not necessarily those of the League of Historical Societies of New Jersey.
Our dedicated local guardians of historic resources that abut and include New Jersey's century-old rail system may want to keep a cautious eye on the sudden resurgence of interest in rail transportation in the state. Seemingly isolated rail projects such as the NJDOT proposal to install additional track at Oak Island Yard and on the Chemical Coast Line and Lehigh Valley Railroad in Union, Essex, Middlesex and Somerset counties; Union County's reactivation of the Staten Island Railway and the Rahway Valley Railway between Staten Island and Summit; and the NJDOT proposal to reactivate the Lackawanna Cutoff between Andover and Scranton all share a commonality with the rapid increases in marine cargo arrivals at the Port of NY/NJ.
With work ongoing to increase the depth of NY Harbor to 13 feet below historic levels, the number of truck containers passing through the port is 2.2 million per year, double what it was in 1991. The Port Authority has plans to increase container arrivals to 4.4 million a year by 2010, and redouble that amount by 2040. The sheer magnitude of the increases along with unbearable traffic surrounding the port areas has prompted the Port Authority to exploit any conceivable options for rail transport of marine cargo. Diesel lines are particularly targeted, because without any overhead electric lines, double stacking of containers or flatbeds would be more readily accomplished. Coincidentally, the city of NY is evaluating a number of plans that would involve packing NY City's municipal solid waste into containers that could move by rail or water out of Staten Island. Although the Chemical Coast Line and the Lehigh Valley Railroad are key to Port Authority plans, additional traffic is planned for the Reading System between Woodbridge and Bound Brook. The Lehigh Valley and Reading System pass through Bound Brook and branch through Flemington Junction, Pennington and Hopewell before crossing over the Delaware River.
The reactivation of the Staten Island Railway and the Rahway Valley Railway will connect the container terminal at Howland Hook to the Morris and Essex Division line at Summit, which would provide access to the old freight siding at Millington on the Gladstone Branch and on the main Erie-Lackawanna through Morristown, Dover and the old Lackawanna Cutoff terminus at Andover. Although the NJDOT is touting the resumption of passenger service to justify reconstruction of the Lackawanna Cutoff was renowned for its ability to have freight trains maintain a sustained 70 mph on their way out to Scranton on the way to Buffalo and beyond. Rail connections west of Scranton also reach out to Taylor, PA, near a municipal solid waste landfill along the Ransom and Taylor border.
Much of the potential threat to historic resources stems from the archaic design of the state's freight rail system and its origins in an essentially agrarian society in the 19th century. Local historians need to be alert to efforts to increase carrying capacity that would result in structural changes that would cause destruction of historic properties and negative impacts to view sheds. Although garbage cars might be touted as being "sealed", even the best cars must vent out odors or burst from expansion of fermentation gases. The flat topography of Central NJ has resulted in many track crossings at street level across such notable roadways as U.S. Route 22 in Union, St. Georges Avenue at the Linden/Roselle border, Route 35 in Woodbridge, and South Avenue in Cranford. Freight trains would run across sections of track used by the Raritan Valley Railroad and share commuter track on the Erie-Lackawanna. Aside from the immediate potential for commuter gridlock from the ability of freight trains to block automobile movements at grade crossings and obstruct passenger trains along shared portions of track, eventual plans to construct overpasses and underpasses could also cause serious encroachment on historic properties. For the present, increases in air pollution and traffic delays can be expected as cars and passengers trains idle as an increasing number of freight trains crowd the tracks. The Lackawanna Cutoff is known for its picturesque, stone overpasses and underpasses and the historic Roseville Tunnel, which could be threatened by increased train weight or double-stacked containers.
All of these circumstances only illustrate the need for careful scrutiny of any rail proposals and all possible impacts in the long term. From a prospective standpoint, if any historic resources along train routes do not already have historic registry, local historical societies may want to use internal capabilities or professional consultants to ascertain eligibility for historic registry or preferably, sponsor nominations for historic registry. Concerns over historic properties need to be immediately conveyed to state legislators and the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) at the NJDEP. If a registered property is threatened by a project that has no federal involvement, the SHPO can be contacted to request a hearing and Interested Party status under NJAC 7:4 - 7.2. Historic properties that may be threatened by projects funded by the state may fall within the scope of Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that may be required under Governor Tom Kean's Executive Order #215. Federal involvement in projects affecting registered historic resources or those eligible for registry would prompt a federally-mandated Environmental Impact Statement and should prompt participation in the hearing process by local historians under Section 106 of the National Historical Preservation Act of 1966 by commenting on any proposals and by obtaining Consulting Party and Signatory status to any applicable Memorandum of Agreement in accordance with 36 CFR 800. Although the Port Authority of NY/NJ is presently limiting public outreach to port communities, the port expansion will have statewide rail impacts that need to be addressed through local hearings at rural and suburban levels. Anyone interested in commenting on the scope of the planned Environmental Impact Statement for the port expansion can log onto http://www.cpipoline.org and http://www.cpipeis.com.
Unfortunately, the port expansion plans generally reflect a desire of the Port Authority to control as much distribution of marine cargo as possible throughout the Northeast out as far as Chicago, Montreal and Virginia. In the process, the Port Authority intends to push as much cargo as possible through one of the most congested states in the nation, whether or not the necessary road and rail infrastructure will ever exist. As a state, we need to consider if there is sufficient infrastructure to support expansion plans, if all the goods need to pass through NJ, and if there is a need to use other port facilities such as a new, alternative deepwater port, Baltimore, Halifax, or any of dozens of ports along a Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway System, which is currently in dire need of developing increased capacity. Inadequate long term planning and insufficient infrastructure will only create desperate conditions that will ultimately result in destruction of natural and historic resources as the paths of least resistance. |