Our daily lives take place within New Jersey's vast transportation infrastructure. The backlog of repairs on our existing bridges and roads stands at an all-time high. We have also strained our transportation resources to build costly and inefficient new infrastructure to accommodate sprawl-type development in more rural areas, rather than for upkeep of infrastructure in older suburbs, towns and cities. Economic An efficient and dependable transport system is a basic and necessary ingredient for any kind of economic success. Transportation is especially important to our economy, as New Jersey is an international shipping and transportation hub for cars, trucks, ships, airplanes and trains.
Maintenance costs are just part of the price of doing business.
However, as with all business expenses, we can be dragged down by the cost if our transportation and land use systems are not planned and do not operate efficiently. The environmental impact of a deficit in infrastructure repair depends on the reasons for the deficit and the actions New Jerseyans take in response. When the repair backlog exists because new roads and bridges are being built at the expense of the old, there are environmental consequences Development will move to the new roads, create new demand in new areas, trigger need for more roads and speed the pace of paving over New Jersey's remaining farms and forests. Things to think about A significant portion of New Jersey's road-building dollars go toward building new roads, which often promote suburban sprawl, rather than toward repair of existing infrastructure in cities and suburbs. The 1950s and 60s saw a number of major roads built in New Jersey.