A $48-million contract awarded March 23 to AECOM to study impacts of widening 34 miles of the most rural southern part of the 117.2-mile New Jersey Turnpike has upset state environmental activists who say the project conflicts with the state’s push to combat climate change; officials say construction remains at least five years off.
The contract is the latest step in the overall $1.1-billion turnpike expansion plan outlined last year that focuses on addin a third lane in each direction to the section stretch between exits 1 and 4 through Camden County. But it also renewed criticism from advocates who say the project will boost greenhouse-gas emissions at a time when the state is investing heavily in cleaner energy and other strategies to reduce them.
