DOT plans to knit Trenton back together

A sea of parking lots on the periphery of New Jersey state government offices in Trenton may be divided into streets and blocks as part of the state Department of Transportation’s plan for converting the Route 29 expressway into a graceful tree-lined boulevard. Trenton residents “have long complained about being walled off from the riverfront by a dangerous speedway,” the Newark Star-Ledger reported March 7. Bowing to those complaints, the state Department of Transportation has hired Glatting Jackson of Orlando, Florida, and Vollmer Associates of New York to develop conceptual plans for converting Route 29 into a boulevard, intersected with streets that would make it easier to reach areas along the Delaware River. A low-speed boulevard three miles long could be built within Route 29’s current right-of-way, city planner Andrew Carten told New Urban News. Alternatively, part of Route 29 could be realigned so that the boulevard would “pull away from the river and run through large tracts of land that presently serve as surface parking lots,” Carten sees shifting the road’s alignment as the better option because it would “create a significant amount of development opportunity and transform Trenton’s waterfront.” Whichever option is chosen, the project, estimated to cost about $110 million, would narrow Route 29’s pavement, remove overpasses, and construct intersections with roundabouts or traffic signals. The speed limit may drop from 50 mph to 35 mph. John P. Bergan, a planning consultant in Pawling, New York, who periodically advocates civic improvement in Trenton, said the west side of the city boasts beautiful old mansions, and the area would revive if noise from speeding highway traffic is alleviated. Mayor Doug Palmer expressed enthusiasm for installing a street grid on extensive state-owned parking lots — thus tying the new boulevard to a better-designed urban core. DOT Commissioner Jack Lettiere predicted the boulevard project would be underway in three to five years. “It’s an idea that is growing in popularity,” he said. Approximately 18 acres would open up to private development. Mayor Palmer wants the state to make the parking lots available to the private sector so that Trenton can attract what he hopes will be hundreds of millions of dollars in investment, converting much of that land to housing, shops, restaurants, and other development. Many of the ideas stem from a 1989 master plan that Andres Duany drew up for the Capital City Redevelopment Corp., an organization established during the administration of Gov. Thomas Kean. “Funding is an issue, but there is support for this concept,” said Kent Ashworth, an aide to the mayor. The boulevard may be built in phases rather than all at once. Most of the funds presumably would come from the federal government. Vollmer Associates estimated that redoing the highway would lengthen commuting time by only one or two minutes. “Engineers insist that narrowing the road and establishing a steady 35 mph flow of traffic actually will improve congestion at bottlenecks,” the Star-Ledger reported. The changes would require construction of several parking decks for state employees, some of whom are unhappy about the possibility of losing the privilege of parking at no charge. Residents of some streets that would be connected to the boulevard have expressed fears that easier access would increase crime — a serious concern in a city with a high rate of offenses. However, Carol Beske of ACT Engineers, part of the DOT project team, reassured residents that on the contrary, “additional activity creates less opportunity for crime.” u