Region — A task force of local mayors, DOT officials, and local planners have been working to revive a plan for a local by-pass road.
The Skyline Drive task force was meeting for nearly two years, out of the public eye, creating a plan to remove trucks and buses from Skyline Drive. Their focus, however, seems to have shifted to creating a new by-pass road across watershed land to connect route 287 to through Wanaque, Ringwood and West Milford while avoiding Skyline Drive and Ringwood Avenue.
Two years ago, after the tragic death of three Ringwood residents on Skyline Drive, officials of Ringwood and Oakland moved to remove the trucks and buses from Skyline Drive. At the time, Wanaque Mayor Warren Hagstrom opposed the plan, citing an increase in traffic on Ringwood Avenue.
Now, a deal has apparently been struck. Hagstrom has agreed to allow the trucks to use Ringwood Avenue, but apparently with the understanding that the Mayors of Ringwood and West Milford support him in his bid for a by-pass road around Ringwood Avenue. Recent articles in the Trends have alluded to the agreement, with Hagstrom stating that a possible connection would be made between the bypass and West Brook Road, creating a more direct route to West Milford.
The plan is not without problems however, and was roundly defeated once previously when county officials did not agree to fund the road. The plan requires that the road cross water mains owned by United Water, and thus far, the company has never agreed allow crossing the viaduct.
An indication that the plan is moving forward appeared at a Ringwood Council meeting last November, when then-Mayor Allan Van Eck asked the council for a resolution directing the task force to continue to investigate a plan to build a driveway through watershed property from Ringwood’s Park-N-Ride directly to Route 511 in an effort to remove the buses from Skyline Drive. Two council members, Jerry Holt and Wenke Taule, voted no, noting that there was little to be gained from such a move, and questioning the task force’s ultimate agenda. (As of January 1, 2003, Mayor Holt has discontinued the meetings, but Ringwood and representatives of the reservoir still plan to meet to discuss the access road from the Park and Ride to Route 511.)
Only one environmental advocate, Ella Fillipone of the Passaic River Coalition, was invited to sit in on the closed meetings. The local press was excluded from the proceedings. No word yet on when and if the meetings will resume.