Economic and Quality of Life Impacts of Route 21 Freeway Construction: ANNUAL REPORT THIRD YEAR (2004)

The New Jersey Department of Transportation in its web page outlines its approach to Context Sensitive Design/Thinking Beyond the Pavement. Context Sensitive Design (CSD) is a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to identifying and solving transportation problems, in which consensus building extends from defining the project need and purpose, concept evolution, design and construction through maintenance and operation. CSD maximizes the integration of the roadway into the surrounding environment/community, while providing for the road user's needs in a manner, which is fiscally feasible. CSD is an attitude and a process, not an outcome. Opened to traffic in December 2000, the "missing section" of the Route 21 Freeway in Clifton and Passaic (Hope Ave. to the Rt. 46 Interchange) was designed utilizing the "equivalent" to the CSD approach at that time and will be used for the evaluation of the CSD approach used. A great deal of planning and design work was done to enhance the quality and appearance of this roadway and to maximize positive impacts on and for the surrounding communities. This research project will evaluate over a five year period how effective the CSD approach was in the design of the Route 21 Freeway. The evaluation will focus on economic and quality of life issues. The type of economic issues that may be reviewed include impacts on neighborhoods, residential real estate values, the success of commercial enterprises in the area, and traffic and safety in the local area. The type of quality of life issues that may be reviewed include: aesthetics and viewscape, level of service of traffic flow and other factors of concern to the local population. Public perception initially and over a five year period will be measured by surveys to be taken each year of the project. This is a most critical element in the study because success ultimately must be "seen" by the impacted public literally and figuratively. In addition, traffic counts will be taken to determine changes from pre-construction to post-construction conditions and variations over the five years of the study. Other published data will be utilized to measure changes in economic and quality of life impacts.

• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/39372
• Corporate Authors:

  New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  323 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
  Newark, NJ  United States  07102

  New Jersey Department of Transportation

  1035 Parkway Avenue
  Trenton, NJ  United States  08625
• Authors:
  • Dresnack, Robert
  • Golub, Eugene
• Publication Date: 2004-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Annual Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; Tables;
• Pagination: 253p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aesthetics; Attitudes; Businesses; Communities; Construction; Context sensitive design; Economic impacts; Freeways; Highway safety; Highway traffic; Landscape maintenance; Level of service; Neighborhoods; Public opinion; Quality of life; Real estate development; Residential areas; Surveys; Traffic flow
• Geographic Terms: New Jersey
• Subject Areas: Construction; Economics; Highways; Society; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01010647
• Record Type: Publication
• Contract Numbers: TO-35
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Nov 28 2005 9:12AM