Atlantic City tunnel finally opens, disrupts operations at Harrah’s

John Curran

Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2001 | 10:36 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- The Atlantic City tunnel project finally opened to traffic Tuesday, after 2 1/2 years of construction and one very embarrassing glitch.

A half-hour later, it had its first traffic jam and prompted a complaint from the local Harrah's casino.

Just after 12:10 p.m., two police motorcyclists and three state police cruisers -- their overhead lights flashing -- led the way as cars began filtering off from the foot of the Atlantic City Expressway and onto the 2.3-mile roadway, which is formally called the Atlantic City Expressway Connector.

"It's beautiful. And it's going to save people a lot of time," said Joseph Haney, 40, an Atlantic City firefighter whose 1994 Toyota 4-Runner was one of the first vehicles in.

It was the second momentous first for Haney.

At 18 he was the first person to be thrown out of an Atlantic City casino, skipping out of school to sneak into Resorts International on its opening day and drop three quarters into a slot machine before being ejected because he was under 21.

The $330 million highway project was built in response to demands from Steve Wynn, the former chairman of Mirage Resorts Inc. The Las Vegas casino company planned a $750 million casino in the marina district and wanted motorists to be able to get to it easily.

To alleviate disruption to the west side neighborhood it runs through, the roadway was designed with a 2,200-foot section as a tunnel, topped by a landscaped park.

But that warded off only some of the barbs that were slung at the project. For years it was a lightning rod for criticism: Donald J. Trump called it a publicly funded "private driveway" to Wynn's planned casino, and neighborhood residents complained about the noise, air pollution and disruption the construction caused.

Just when those controversies had begun to fade, a new one surfaced.

On Friday Acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco cut the ribbon for the project during a daylong celebration that was supposed to culminate with its opening to traffic at 6 p.m.

But a radio communications glitch forced the embarrassing last-minute postponement of the actual opening, leaving South Jersey Transportation Authority officials and contractors red-faced.

"For it to end on a sour note like that was tough to swallow," said Stanley Glassey, chairman of the SJTA board. "It was embarrassing and it was depressing for us."

Like superstitious gamblers who had already been burned, SJTA officials eschewed any fanfare Tuesday. There were no speeches, no ribbons, no ceremonies.

Instead, they gathered on a hill overlooking the Connector's main ramp to watch traffic begin flowing. Flow it did, but gingerly: The first few motorists crept down the virgin roadway -- speed limit: 35 mph -- as if they were test-driving a car.

The novelty wore off quickly.

Those headed to Harrah's Atlantic City casino found a blight at the end of the tunnel: Cars and trucks that got off the Connector there got stuck in a traffic jam as they merged with Brigantine Boulevard traffic.

Bumper-to-bumper, the cars backed up onto the Connector, causing long delays for Harrah's customers. Brigantine-bound traffic moved smoothly.

"This is terrible!" said George DeFilippo, 73, of Manchester.

"They better straighten this out coming in here," said another driver, who wouldn't give her name. "It's such a mix-up."

Richard Fischer, project manager for Parsons Brinckerhoff, a consulting firm overseeing construction of the Connector, blamed the logjam on the intersection of Brigantine Boulevard and Harrah's Boulevard, which forces that line of traffic to stop.

"I think we got an abnormal volume there, but now that the road is up, we'll look at that," he said. Asked if the Connector's design was flawed, he said: "That traffic is caused by an offsite condition, which is Harrah's Boulevard."

By 3 p.m. Tuesday, Harrah's general manager, Dave Jonas, had called SJTA executive director James Crawford to express his concern about the problem.

"It's not going to work," Jonas said. "We have to widen the road as you come into our building." Harrah's may also need police to direct traffic at peak periods, he said.

But he said the Connector was doing what it is supposed to do, and that is make it easier for drivers to get the marina district and Brigantine.

"Like all highways at the Jersey shore in the middle of summer, there are going to be delays. People have to prepare accordingly," Jonas said.