The Garden State Parkway Widening and Flood Basin Installations

The NJTA Garden State Parkway Widening project, advertised as a Safety Program. It is anything but and has affected our neighborhood of Evergreen Woods in Brick, NJ. I am a resident here, but one of many who are adversely affected. Life has not been the same for us since this project began and has continued. And it’s not just the 73-97 db level of noise 24/7 we are exposed to, or the allergies, asthma, bronchitis and a host of other health issues folks here now suffer from. We are also concerned about errant vehicles plowing into our community because there is less of a barrier to stop them. But also, we have lost the more important simple things in life. We no longer get a good night’s rest. The around-the-clock noise emitted from the Parkway has us falling asleep on the road, at work, and for children, at school. Enjoying our backyards as we once did, having family or friends over to enjoy an afternoon on the porch, or the ability even to crack open a window or door when spring has arrived is completely lost to us.
            Our community is slightly north of Exit 91 of the Garden State Parkway on the southbound side. A year ago a countless number of trees were clear-cut in a 100 foot swathe in the center median and shoulders severely thinned of them. They once served as a natural barrier against the excessive noise and fumes emitted from this highway, referred to euphemistically as a ‘noisemaker’ by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).
It took us a little over a year, but we discovered why this travesty was allowed to happen. Different projects of the GSP widening were segmented with each segment having ‘independent quality’. I have an email from Charlie Welch, of the DEP that states, “While the ‘Parkway Shoulder Widening and Improvements to Interchange 91 parts of the project are adjacent to each other, they are separate and independent projects. In short, this means that one project is not dependent on the other project moving forward.  With that said, each project was reviewed independently for “Purpose and Need”, including stormwater management, water quality, and clearing limits.” Each part was segmented, given independent quality, to avoid a more detailed EIS if both were considered together. But this is just one part of the issue. A sound study was performed here in 2005 which admitted a noise problem existed and that it would persist and, only the Cherrywood Farms community, slightly south on the north side of the GSP, was slated for a sound barrier. This is because according to the NJTA, the scenario that qualifies for a wall, besides qualifying by noise, is that an auxiliary road was added. They don’t consider other scenarios such as ours where an 8 lane highway, once separated by a natural sound barrier, four north and four south, has now been decimated. This exposes our community to 8 lanes of 24/7 traffic and fumes. The proposed Cherrywood Farm wall is going to be 929 feet long and 12 ft. high at $50/sq. ft, totaling $603,750. And because of a resolution passed by Brick Township in 2011, residents here are now paying for it. Then Hurricane Sandy happened. The NJDEP decided that they needed to install several flash flood basins along the length of the GSP. One is located directly across from our community in the center median. The NJTA has said they will replace none of the trees that were clear cut along this length. I inquired about this basin and now have a letter from a NJTA Project Engineer who blames the NJDEP for refusing to abandon their idea in this area, but decided it was okay to move the basin to another location. According to this NJTA engineer, it was argued that “flooding was not a problem here, that there was sandy soil in the area and it would continue to drain as it always has, and that this is a densely populated area.” I have lived in this area for 20 years and it has never flooded in this area. Nor are we near any streams or bodies of water that would overflow either. Charlie Welch, from the NJDEP, who signs the Wetland permits, visited our community on June 4th, 2013, because of allegations that more trees were cut down than was allowed by permit. I asked him about the 2005 Sound Study. Charlie admitted that other than that study, no other was done in the area of Evergreen Woods, which faces the parkway near North Loop Road. It was conducted before the decimation of the center median, the clear cutting of several feet from the shoulders, and one of the mistakes where a dirt berm now exists. And he admitted to not knowing where were located until his subordinate explained that it was just north of the exit. This is of how little concern we were. On the engineer’s drawing they had us down as apartments and not condominiums. The NJTA also had a hand in this dilemma. According to their policy, the shoulder of the highway has a Categorical Exclusion from having to perform an EIS (Environmental Impact Study). Only a Flood Hazard report and Endangered Species study was done. And since the NJDEP did the Flood Hazard report, and it was reviewed separately, no new sound study was ordered. They washed their hands of it. The basins were a last minute addition. There was virtually no transparency for what came next. No one knew about the extensive clear cutting or to what extend it would affect them. In the Environmental Assessment (Wetland Permits), we were able to get through freedom of information, one section states that, “an untold number of trees were being cut.” The only requirement from the NJDEP was to cut them before the migratory birds came or after they had already left. No concern was given for the dense human population that lives along both sides of the Parkway, except for one small, the upscale group of condos known as Cherrywood Farms. The poorer masses could just suffer. We have used a decibel meter at different times of the day.  We have videotaped levels illustrating that it reached 74 db, when there were any vehicles on the highway, and all the way up to 97 db, when traffic got heavier. That sound level is equivalent to somewhere between a pneumatic hammer and a subway car. Our homes shake and rumble as if an earthquake is happening. The heavy, tire noise sounds like a large airplane is taxiing past our backyards. This happens at all hours, and now with the warmer weather, it will increase due to higher traffic volume. We have been sleep deprived for over a year now. I haven’t been this exhausted since I had mono in college, Wearing earplugs, earphones, using white noise or other sound devices for distraction, and over the counter meds to sleep, don’t work well when your house shakes from heavy trucks and buses. Here are some comments from our Facebook page: “I'm getting sick more often as well as my 5 year old, who occasionally has to have breathing treatments. I'm developing asthmatic symptoms again. I haven't had this problem in over 15 years! I yelled to my son the other day not to run out into the street and, because of the noise level, he seriously could not hear me.”; “I came home around 5:30 pm and the fumes were bad. Will not be opening my windows at all this spring or summer. Do you think they would pay my electric bill?”; “Noise day and night especially when they are working on the Burnt Tavern Bridge!”; "Last night my 5 yr old woke up at 4 ish am and went downstairs . I was up doing work in my basement and I heard him and asked him what he was doing up. He said he's sleeping downstairs cause he can't fall back asleep because of the parkway that woke him up. He said it's too noises upstairs! He had to go to school worn and tired."; “The vibrations sometimes feel like that earthquake we had a few years ago. “; “We have had more upper respiratory problems. I leave our development for the day and have no issues in other towns in their parks or homes. When we return to evergreen woods it takes about 10 minutes of playing outside with my child to start sneezing and coughing.. Both our eyes and throats burn in and outside the house. As for the noise? It is much louder in the past month. I hear the constant hissing of the traffic and horns, braking trucks, and buses. That's inside! Outside my daughter can't hear me yell to her if she is more than 25 feet away! And I can't hear her! This is dangerous!! I don't know what happened, but it was loud in the fall-winter and has gotten significantly worse.” These were just a few of the complaints. Here are a few links where we measured the noise and videotaped it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvk8hO508g4&feature=youtu.be ; and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PGSEiloJNo&feature=youtu.be . While done by amateurs it gives you the picture. Here is another video with the median completely gone: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=372289966216671&set=vb.363408643771470&type=2&theater  And here is a video I shot off the side of the highway adjacent to Evergreen Woods: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lmwejI5k6c In a July 2013 letter the NJTA warns us to put in our Deeds and warn all buyers that the NJTA will never mitigate. And the NJDEP’s Charlie Welch answered when I asked why a sound study wasn’t performed where two portions of the construction clearly affected each other, “Engineers are linear thinkers,” as if that comment alone explained everything. We know that the NJTA and NJDEP did pretty much what they wanted to even though they have severely affected the health and well being, and the quality of life of the people of Evergreen Woods. They misinform people using their huge staff of lawyers, PR department, engineers, and executive staff. So much for part of the original contract the NJTA signed when they took over the highway that read, “12.The exercise of the powers granted by this act will be in all respects for the benefit of the people of the State, for the increase of their commerce and prosperity, and for the improvement of their health and living conditions. . .”: It was not for our health and well being. The front and center view of the busy traffic and its noise has significantly lowered our home values and concerns us greatly. We are not wealthy people and our assets are tied up in our homes. We could not give them away now. The noise is deafening and the view is horrific. The minute a buyer walks out that back door, the sale is ended. We have visited, written, and called local and state entities for help. The only thing we got from the NJTA was a small berm, with some trees and bushes (two trees were planted that were already dead), to replace trees cut down all the way to the fence by mistake. We are getting some saplings to replace the massive tree loss from the No-Net-Loss program. This would be great if we could sleep for 20 years and wake up after the trees have filled out. But that won’t help us now. We have to continue to fight until we get a noise barrier wall. The NJTA are bullies and we expect no different from them, even with the new executive director. The NJDEP do what they want all in the name of protecting the environment which they willfully destroy an acre at a time. When we went to our senator for help, NJTA consulted with their lawyers, engineers, and PR staff trying to figure out how to handle us. They did a media blitz on the 101.5 FM radio show where they used semantics and misinformation to scare the public from resisting what was done to them. http://nj1015.com/sound-wall-placement-criteria-explained-by-turnpike-authority-audio/ When I first contacted the NJTA, thinking foolishly they’d be concerned about our plight, they actually said to me, “We were here first.” This thinking is at the core of everything they do and say. Even at the March 2012 Brick town hall meeting, where people came to complain, the NJTA kept saying, “No road is being added so no volume is being added. We are adding special pavement. You don’t qualify for a wall.” They said this to everyone there. They keep referring to it as a “Safety Program” but we far from safe here. People are getting sick and nothing is being done about it. It is only a matter of time before an 18-wheeler plows into our community. Our quality of life has been utterly destroyed. We haven’t been able to get any media coverage to tell our side of the story, and what life is like since the trees were cut down. Many people objected to this and made those objections known at the March 2012 town hall meeting, and still the NJDEP (who drove the basin project), and the NJTA with their widening and destroying a once gorgeous highway, did nothing. If we could get just one journalist to get this story out, because it affects people all the way down to Atlantic City, we could get something done here. One of the Ocean County engineers had said that this is precedent setting, which is probably why NJTA have fought us so hard. We can’t let them continue to harm the innocent people in this community. It’s not right and they have to be exposed for what they have done.


Here is our Facebook page with pics and videos: https://www.facebook.com/SoundBarrierWallForEvergreen

and here is our online petition: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/destruction-of-nj-garden

Michele Spector