Atlantic City–Brigantine Connector

US 30 eastbound at its interchange with the connector. The connector was first proposed in the 1960s to connect US 30 with the Atlantic City Expressway.

A connector road between the ACE and the Marina district was first proposed in 1964 by the Atlantic City Planning Board, as the Route 30 Connector, linking the end of the expressway with US 30. The goal was to lessen congestion in Midtown Atlantic City and improve access to the Marina district and the neighboring city of Brigantine. Because of a lack of funds and environmental concerns about construction near the adjacent wetlands, the connector project remained dormant until 1990 when plans for the road were included in a report by the city's Transportation Executive Council.[8] A 1991 study found the project was environmentally feasible, and a route was proposed with a one-mile (1.6 km) elevated highway over the wetlands. Construction costs were estimated at $80 million,[9] but due to a continuing lack of funds and the complexity of constructing above the wetlands, the project was again postponed.[10]

Plans for the connector reemerged in 1995 following a proposal from real estate businessman and Mirage Resorts president Steve Wynn. The city of Atlantic City issued a request for qualifications to developers interested in developing H-Tract, a former landfill site in the Marina district.[11] Wynn obtained the property from the city following his proposal to construct a $1 billion casino resort.[12] He would only build if better road access was provided directly to the site, which prompted state officials to revive the connector plans.[10]

New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman created a transportation task force in September 1995 to consider options.[11] It studied 11 alternative routes, including elevated highways, tunnels, and improvements to existing streets.[13] In March 1996 the task force determined that the best alternative was the Westside Bypass route, which included a highway along the western shore of the city with a tunnel under the Westside neighborhood.[11] Whitman formally adopted the task force's recommendation in July 1996, ensuring that alternative would be built.[11]

The goals of the project were to improve access to the Atlantic City Convention Center, the Marina district, Brigantine, and traffic flow along the city's streets.[14] The tunnel was designed to have as little impact on the surrounding environment as possible; its design included both portals on opposite ends of the community, with landscaping added between the construction site and adjacent homes.[15] Nine existing homes along Horace J. Bryant Jr. Drive would be demolished for the construction of the tunnel.[16] Funding for the project, formally known as the Atlantic City–Brigantine Connector,[14] was approved in January 1997.[3] The total cost of the project was $330 million (equivalent to $498 million in 2019).[17] Mirage Resorts agreed to pay $110 million, with the remainder coming from state funds from the SJTA ($60 million), the Transportation Trust Fund ($95 million), and the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority ($65 million).[18]

The connector features a 1,957-foot (596 m) tunnel that travels under the Westside residential neighborhood. The tunnel was controversial during the planning stages, as several homes had to be destroyed for its construction.

The project was controversial, as tunnel construction would displace homes in the Westside neighborhood, and local residents vowed to fight it.[16] Its opponents described the project as an effort to destroy a community, while supporters claimed it was necessary to reduce traffic and create new jobs at the planned casino.[19] Atlantic City Mayor Jim Whelan, a supporter, felt the project would benefit the city.[20] Mirage offered each affected property owner on Horace J. Bryant Jr. Drive $200,000 for their homes, an offer five of the nine accepted. A lawsuit was filed against the company and the city, claiming the tunnel construction would require the demolition of "their stable, black neighborhood" and thus violate their rights.[16][21]

Donald Trump, the chairman of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts at the time who later became the president of the United States, was also opposed to the connector, and paid the Westside residents' legal bills.[22] Knowing that Wynn's casino would not be built without the connector, Trump also filed lawsuits against the use of state funds for the project.[23] According to Whelan, Trump "didn't want the competition" with his three existing Atlantic City casinos,[20] including Trump Marina, next to the site of Wynn's future casino at H-Tract.[12] Trump criticized the connector as a state-funded "private driveway" to Wynn's casino, and denounced the funding as "corporate welfare" that unfairly favored an out-of-state company (Mirage) over those that had previously made business investments in the city.[20][24][25] He claimed that the tunnel would have "immense environmental impacts",[16] and urged the state's Department of Environmental Protection to deny construction permits.[26] Mirage and Wynn retaliated by filing an antitrust lawsuit against Trump Hotels alleging that the company's only goal was to prevent the Mirage resort from being built.[22] The feud between Trump and Wynn over the connector was later the subject of the 2012 book The War at the Shore: Steve Wynn, Donald Trump and the Epic Battle to Save Atlantic City, by former Mirage director Richard "Skip" Bronson.[23]

According to the Las Vegas Sun, "more than a dozen" lawsuits were filed over the connector project.[24] The lawsuit by the Westside homeowners was eventually dismissed by a federal judge in February 1998.[16] Trump's legal battles against the project lasted four years; he dropped them in February 2001 in exchange for a settlement that would include a new exit ramp from the connector to the Trump Marina. Trump agreed to pay half the ramp's $12 million cost.[27] A group of New Jersey mayors who also opposed the project and filed suit to block "an inappropriate use of state funds".[24] Their lawsuit was also dismissed; the court found the construction of the connector necessary whether the casino was built or not.[12]

Construction bids for the design–build contract of the Atlantic City–Brigantine Connector were submitted to the SJTA in July 1997.[18] The winning bid was the joint venture of Yonkers Contracting Company and Granite Construction who led the design and construction phases of the project.[28] At that time, the connector was the largest design–build project performed by the State of New Jersey and the largest public–private partnership project in the United States.[29][30] Permits were granted in October 1998,[26] and the groundbreaking ceremony took place on November 4.[1] Completion was originally scheduled for May 2001.[16]

Excavation of the tunnel, using the cut and cover method, began in May 1999.[16] The nine homes were demolished and a 2,200-foot-long (670 m) trench was dug down to 35 feet (11 m) deep.[30] A total 160,000 cubic yards (120,000 m³) of dirt was removed,[16] most of which was reused to construct ramps at other sites on the connector.[31] 100,000 cubic yards (76,000 m³) of reinforced concrete was poured to form the tunnel walls,[31] and a five-foot-thick (1.5 m) concrete roof was constructed on top of the tunnel where the homes once stood; the site was later turned into a neighborhood park.[32][33] Since the tunnel runs adjacent to the Penrose Canal, groundwater was present just five feet (1.5 m) below the bottom of the trench, requiring a dewatering process to complete the construction.[34] Intelligent transportation system technology was installed to monitor traffic flow and control the tunnel ventilation, automatically triggering jet fans if carbon monoxide levels became too high.[32][35]

In addition to the tunnel, the connector required building 16 bridges, 15 ramps, and 23 retaining walls, plus landscaping, drainage, and variable-message signs.[36] It was also necessary to move public utility infrastructure, and demolish a sewer pumping station, portions of a power station and a warehouse.[29] A promenade at Trump Marina was leveled to make way for new ramps, and 37 ornamental lampposts were dismantled and later shipped to the nearby Tuckerton Seaport, which opened in 2000.[37] To avoid disruptions in the neighborhood, deliveries of construction materials took place by barge, and construction vehicles did not travel along any local streets.[15] Over 1,800 workers were involved.[30]

During construction, Wynn sold Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand Inc. in a $6.4 billion deal in 2000, forming the MGM Mirage company. Wynn's plans for his Atlantic City casino resort were cancelled, prompting critics to dismiss the project as the "road to nowhere".[16] MGM Mirage took over the H-Tract site, renaming it Renaissance Pointe,[38] and developed plans for Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, which opened in 2003 after three years of construction.[39]

The opening of the connector helped establish Borgata, the city's high-grossing casino, which opened in 2003.

A shortage of materials and delivery delays in late 2000 delayed the connector's opening from May to July 2001.[40] The grand opening ceremony took place on July 27, with festivities including a pedestrian tunnel walk.[41] The connector was expected to open to traffic that evening but due to last-minute malfunctions with the tunnel's emergency radio communications system, it did not open to vehicles for four days.[2] Upon opening, the road was formally named the Atlantic City Expressway Connector.[3] Exit ramps to Borgata and Trump Marina were completed and opened in 2003.[1]

Once the connector opened, travel times between the Midtown and the Marina districts fell to four minutes from 15.[42] A year after its opening, 18,000 to 20,000 vehicles traveled it daily, higher than the SJTA's expected annual average daily traffic volume of 14,000 to 17,000. Following the opening of Borgata in 2003, the connector served 25,000 vehicles a day.[43]

The connector also affected the city's casino industry, shifting business from boardwalk casinos to those at the marina. Transportation analyst and former SJTA executive Anthony Marino agreed that the connector "[wa]s no doubt a factor in the difficulties experienced by Boardwalk casinos."[16] The eight casinos along the boardwalk in 2001 were down to four by 2016. State records that year showed that the three marina casinos had an average annual gross revenue of $134 million, compared to $70 million for the boardwalk casinos. Whelan said "the impact of the [connector] project is undeniable", in improving traffic flow in the city and road access to Brigantine.[16] He also credited the project for bringing Borgata, which has since become the city's top-grossing casino.[16]