Goethals Bridge Replacement EIS APPENDIX M: PUBLIC OUTREACH AND SCOPING MEETING M.1 Draft Scoping Document M.2 Notices in Federal Register M.3 Summary Report for 2004 Scoping Meetings Goethals Bridge Replacement EIS Appendix M.1 Draft Scoping Document DRAFT SCOPING DOCUMENT FOR EIS PREPARATION IN CONJUNCTION WITH PROPOSED REPLACEMENT OF THE GOETHALS BRIDGE Project is Identified as the Goethals Bridge Modernization Program (GBMP) EIS Prepared for: United States Coast Guard Prepared by: The Louis Berger Group, Inc./Parsons Brinckerhoff Joint Venture August 20, 2004 Goethals Bridge Modernization Program EIS Draft Scoping Document TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1.0 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................1 2.0 STUDY OVERVIEW..............................................................................................................3 3.0 PURPOSE AND NEED...........................................................................................................6 4.0 ALTERNATIVES..................................................................................................................15 5.0 SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS................................................17 6.0 PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT PROGRAM..................................................................................47 TOC-1 Goethals Bridge Modernization Program EIS Draft Scoping Document 1.0 INTRODUCTION The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (the Port Authority) has proposed a Goethals Bridge Modernization Program (GBMP), featuring a new crossing to replace the existing Goethals Bridge. The Goethals Bridge provides a direct connection between Staten Island, New York, and Elizabeth, New Jersey (see Figure 1). It facilitates mobility between the two states as part of the Port Authority’s Interstate Transportation Network, comprised of the George Washington Bridge, the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, and the three Staten Island Bridges (i.e., Goethals Bridge, Outerbridge Crossing and Bayonne Bridge). In addition, the bridge is considered a primary path of travel within the Southern Corridor, connecting Interstate 278 (the Staten Island Expressway) near Staten Island's north shore with the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 95) and U.S. Routes 1 and 9 in New Jersey. The existing bridge has substandard 10-foot-wide lanes, no emergency shoulders, and escalating repair and maintenance costs. The functional obsolescence of the 76-year-old bridge impedes efforts to improve safety and reliability, accommodate current vehicle sizes, maintain efficient traffic operations and improve incident response. The design of the proposed new facility would reflect current traffic design standards, modern structural and seismic codes, national-security safeguards, and technology enhancements. It would also incorporate operational flexibility, which is not feasible with the existing bridge, in order to facilitate future transit-service opportunities. By ensuring the ability to meet current and future interstate travel demand, the GBMP is expected to support long-term economic growth and improved mobility for the local communities, as well as enhance overall performance, flexibility and reliability of the transportation network serving the greater metropolitan area. The Port Authority notified the U.S. Coast Guard (Coast Guard) by letter of June 3, 2004, of its intent to submit a formal application for a Bridge Permit under the General Bridge Act of 1946. Accordingly, the Coast Guard assumed the role of the Federal lead agency for preparation and issuance of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for this project, in accordance with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. This Draft Scoping Document has been prepared as part of the formal scoping process pursuant to NEPA and the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations implementing NEPA (40 CFR Part 1500 et seq.). The Draft Scoping Document provides information to the public and agencies on the Draft EIS (DEIS) process, issues and alternatives that will be addressed, and analytical methodologies that will be employed. The broader purpose of the scoping process is to provide opportunity for the public and agencies to comment on and provide input to the scope of the DEIS as it is initiated. 1 Goethals Bridge Modernization Program EIS Draft Scoping Document 2 Goethals Bridge Modernization Program EIS Draft Scoping Document 2.0 EIS OVERVIEW 2.1 Initiating the EIS Process Figure 2 highlights the general steps in the EIS process. The process officially began with the Port Authority’s submittal of a Letter of Intent to File a Bridge Permit Application to the Coast Guard for the GBMP. In response to this letter, the Coast Guard, as Federal lead agency, published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare a DEIS in the Federal Register (August 10, 2004). This initiated the scoping process. 2.2 EIS Scoping Process The purpose of the scoping process is to provide an opportunity for agencies and the general public to comment on and provide input to the scope of issues to be addressed in the DEIS and in the identification of the significant issues related to the proposed action. Agency and public scoping meetings will be held to review the study scope and approach and to receive comments and suggestions for consideration from agencies and the general public. Federal, state, and local agencies were invited by letter to participate in the scoping process; the general public, elected officials, special interest groups and other potential stakeholders will be invited to participate via various advertising and outreach mechanisms. The agency scoping meeting will be held on September 14, 2004, at the offices of the U.S. Coast Guard, First Coast Guard District, One South Street, Battery Building, New York, NY. Two sets of public scoping meetings will be held in October 2004, one on Staten Island, NY, and one in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Scoping comments may be made orally at the scoping meetings, or in writing throughout the scoping process, and will be accepted for a minimum of 30 days following the scoping meetings. 2.3 DEIS Preparation The GBMP DEIS will be prepared in accordance with NEPA regulations designed to identify significant environmental issues at an early stage and promote cooperative consultation among agencies before the DEIS is prepared. The DEIS will specifically follow the CEQ regulations implementing NEPA (40 CFR Part 1500 et seq.). After its publication, the DEIS will be available for public and agency review and comment for a minimum 45-day period. Public hearing(s) will be held to receive comments from the public and agencies on the document; comments may be provided orally at the hearing(s) or in writing during the DEIS comment period. 2.4 EIS Study Areas Potential direct, indirect and cumulative impacts of the proposed project will be evaluated within the boundaries of primary, secondary and regional study areas. Within these study areas, existing conditions will be examined and described, and future conditions and potential impacts without and with the proposed project will be assessed. The primary study area for evaluation of potential direct impacts is proposed to encompass approximately one square mile of industrial waterfront in New Jersey, principally in Elizabeth, with a smaller portion in Linden, and nearly two square miles of less-developed acreage in northwestern Staten Island, New York. More specifically, the prospective primary study area is expected to parallel the immediate right-of-way of the Goethals Bridge corridor, extending between 400 and 500 feet north and south of the existing Goethals Bridge and approach alignments. The secondary study area, 3 Goethals Bridge Modernization Program EIS Draft Scoping Document 4 Goethals Bridge Modernization Program EIS Draft Scoping Document within which indirect, or secondary, project-related impacts may occur, is proposed to extend approximately one-half mile in all directions from the Goethals Bridge corridor. These proposed study area limits will be further refined and expanded, if necessary, following identification of project alternatives for detailed evaluation in the DEIS. Recognizing the Goethals Bridge’s role in the metropolitan area’s transportation network, a larger regional study area is proposed for the assessment of traffic and transportation, and related air quality conditions and potential impacts. Potential cumulative impacts of the proposed project, as well as other major transportation and development projects in the Goethals Bridge corridor’s vicinity and in the region, will also be assessed. The regional study area will likely encompass the 23 counties in New York and New Jersey that are included in the Best Practice Model (BPM), a multi-modal travel-forecasting model developed by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) for use in transportation studies in the New York metropolitan area. The BPM is currently being updated and modified (BPM-Goethals) by the EIS Consultant to provide greater specificity for the Goethals Bridge/Outerbridge Crossing Southern Corridor, for use in the traffic and transportation analyses for this EIS. In addition to the regional study area for the traffic and air quality assessments, individual analysis sites will be selected at major roadways in the vicinity of the proposed project and at other major travel routes in the region where localized impacts may occur. 5 Goethals Bridge Modernization Program EIS Draft Scoping Document 3.0 PURPOSE AND NEED 3.1 Overview of Purpose and Need The purpose of the GBMP is to eliminate the functional and physical obsolescence of the current Goethals Bridge and address the aging structure’s escalating maintenance, repair, and structural retrofit needs, and associated costs. The GBMP, which features the proposed replacement of the Goethals Bridge (the project), would also serve to improve traffic flows; safety conditions and management of traffic incidents on the bridge; and overall performance, reliability, flexibility, and redundancy of the transportation network serving the greater New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. The principal factors that underlie the need for the project are: • the existing bridge’s functional and physical obsolescence due to inadequate design features, including narrow lanes, no emergency shoulders, and substandard alignment, resulting in worsening traffic service, safety conditions, and management of traffic incidents on the bridge; • the existing bridge’s age, including the bridge deck, which is past its normal service life and requires ongoing maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation costs, and the need for a seismic retrofit of the substructure and superstructure; • the existing bridge’s deficiency as a reliable transportation link for system redundancy within the Staten Island Bridges system and, more broadly, the New York/New Jersey region in the event of emergency; • increasing traffic volumes, including truck traffic, across the existing Goethals Bridge, resulting in worsening traffic conditions and relatively higher accident levels on the facility; and • the layout of the existing bridge and its approaches, which limits the ability to maximize traffic flow improvements afforded by E-ZPass technology, and which is inadequate to provide for priority-lane treatment or dedicated capacity for potential future transit service on the facility. The project is intended to address each of these critical factors and thereby provide for an adequate, efficient, and safe crossing in the Goethals Bridge corridor to meet present and anticipated future transportation system needs. 3.2 Background 3.2.1 Introduction The Goethals Bridge was constructed in the 1920s to span the Arthur Kill and provide a roadway connection between Staten Island, New York, and Elizabeth, New Jersey. The two other roadway connections between Staten Island and New Jersey are the Bayonne Bridge, connecting northern Staten Island with Bayonne, New Jersey, and the Outerbridge Crossing, connecting southern Staten Island with Perth Amboy, New Jersey. These three bridges, which comprise the Staten Island Bridges system, are owned and operated by the Port Authority. 3.2.2 Traffic Growth Trends The importance of the Goethals Bridge within the regional roadway network grew with the opening in 1964 of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. The two bridges, connected by the Staten Island Expressway (part of I-278), became elements of an increasingly busy travel corridor between and including New Jersey, Staten Island, and geographic Long Island (i.e., Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau and Suffolk counties). In the larger regional transportation context, I-278 serves as a critical spine within New York 6