|
July 31, 1964: In noontime ceremonies presided over by state Sen. Frank S. “Hap” Farley, the legislator who made it happen, the Atlantic City Expressway opens between its western terminus in Camden County and the Garden State Parkway in Pleasantville. Construction had begun a year earlier and was completed a year ahead of schedule.
The service station at what became the Farley Service Center opens for business.
December 1964: The New Jersey Expressway Authority collected $741,668 in tolls during its first five months of operations (including $7,457 collected July 31st).
1965: The Expressway link to Atlantic City is completed. Toll collections rise to $2,283,966. The cost of building the Expressway is calculated to be $48,273,990.
Oct. 1, 1965: A cafeteria-style restaurant, the Holiday House at Elwood, opens at the Service Center.
June 22, 1966: The Farmers Market comes to the Service Center in temporary quarters. An Expressway beautification program is undertaken.
The first rise in tolls takes effect -- the Egg Harbor toll for passenger vehicles goes from 75 cents to $1. The Pleasantville remains 15 cents. Toll collections come to $3,268,444, nearly two thirds of that total was realized in the four summer-season months, June through September.
1967: The Authority installs state-of-the-art call boxes for motorists in need of help along the full length of the Expressway. The beautification program begins with landscaping selected sections of the highway. Planting in the median also serves safety by protecting drivers from headlight glare of oncoming vehicles.
Toll collection reaches $3,616,908.
May 1968: Harness racing comes to the Atlantic City Race Course, increasing revenues at the new Interchange 12.
November 1968: A major nor’easter closes the White Horse and Black Horse Pikes near Atlantic City, but the Expressway stays open – largely due to its construction three feet higher than the older highways, nine feet above mean high tide.
Annual toll collections top $4 million for the first time.
1969: The Farm Market opens at the Service Center.
1970: The Expressway’s impact on growth was demonstrated by the 9,000-unit development planned by Levitt & Sons near Exit 38 in Winslow Township, Camden County. South Jersey Gas Co. built its corporate headquarters in Folsom, Atlantic County, and McGregor-Werner Graphics opened a plant in Woodbine, Cape May County.
1973: Despite the “oil shock,” toll collection crosses the $5 million mark for the first time – at $5,394,473 a 10.3-percent increase from 1972. Not surprisingly toll revenues shrank the next year to $4,665,643.
1976: The fuel crisis having abated, traffic volume rose 10.7 percent. Toll revenues also rebounded at $5,436,684 – up from $4,902,620 in 1975.
April 12, 1977: The Service Center is dedicated as the Frank S. Farley Plaza.
Traffic volume rises 11.1 percent, and toll collection crosses the $6-million mark.
1978: The arrival of casino gaming gives the Atlantic City Expressway a greatly enhanced mission. Traffic volume rises sharply in the seven months since the first casino, Resorts, opened – up 21 percent at Egg Harbor Toll Plaza and 49 percent at Pleasantville. Toll collection reflected the change – up 20 percent to $7,240,020!
1979: With Atlantic City’s hotels making way for the advent of the casinos, the nature of the Atlantic City Expressway changed, too. As traffic volume soared, toll collections reached $8,576,921, up 18.5 percent and its largest dollar increase yet. Because of the second oil shock, gasoline had to be rationed at the Farley Plaza to $3 a customer – later raised to $5 to keep up with rising prices.
1980: With usage rising exponentially, the Authority completed paving 77 lane-miles of the Expressway’s inside shoulder. Gas rationing at Farley Plaza is lifted. The crisis did not discourage drivers, as once again traffic volume set a record – at 29.9 percent growth! The new motorists were not all gamblers. Some were employees at the casinos, making the trip every working day. Toll collections hit an astonishing $11,126,831.
Autumn 1982: Work begins to expand and renovate Holiday House at Farley Plaza to meet contemporary tastes, transforming it from a cafeteria into a fast-food restaurant.
1985: The New Jersey Expressway Authority contributes $3,750,000 to the newly established Transportation Trust Fund, as did the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway authorities.
July 31, 1989: The Expressway celebrates its 25th anniversary at the Egg Harbor Toll Plaza. During the boom years of 1985-88, a third eastbound lane was constructed starting at the Route 73 entrance through the Pleasantville Toll Plaza, which was expanded from eight to 12 lanes. Egg Harbor was widened to 13 lanes. Looking ahead, the Authority planned approaches to the proposed Atlantic City Convention Center and a new interchange to serve the burgeoning suburbs around Berlin-Cross Keys Road in Camden County.
By 1989, traffic volume was nearly 44 million, more than seven times the 6 million vehicles that rode the Expressway 25 years before. Toll collections had doubled since 1980, hitting $22,977,015.
June 1991: The Legislature creates the South Jersey Transportation Authority, serving six counties – Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem. It is a successor to the New Jersey Expressway Authority and Atlantic County Transportation Authority. The new body will assume operational responsibilities for the Atlantic City Expressway, Atlantic City International Airport terminal and parking facilities in Atlantic City in 1992.
1992: The new authority gets its financial house in order with a new bond issue. Toll revenues exceed $24 million.
1994: The Authority begins a project to nearly double the size of the terminal at Atlantic City International Airport by erecting a second story. It is part of a long-range, demand-driven master plan. A new 9,000-square-foot State Police barracks, complete with auto maintenance shop, opens at the Farley Service Plaza. The electronic toll collection system now known as E-ZPass wins federal funding, and the Authority’s administration joins the computer age for payroll and financial record-keeping.
1995: For the first time, an entire year passed without a single traffic fatality on the Expressway. ACY was host to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s convention, during which an Air France supersonic Concorde landed and took off for two charity flights plus a Mach II demonstration flight over the ocean. Midlantic Jet Aviation, Inc., begins operations at ACY and announces plans to build a $2-million maintenance shop.
Sept. 27, 1995: The bridge connecting the Expressway with Atlantic City streets is named for Dr. Joseph L. McGahn, a state senator and Absecon civic leader. Meanwhile, the bridge is expanded to five lanes.
April 1, 1996: With the expiration of a management use and occupancy agreement struck by the City of Atlantic City, the South Jersey Transportation Authority assumes full management control of Atlantic City International Airport.
May 7, 1996: Gov. Christine Todd Whitman cuts the ceremonial ribbon to open the expanded ACY terminal, which grew from 45,000 to 78,000 square feet under roof – and from three gates to seven, three of them elevated boarding bridges.
Sept. 17, 1996: A Deloitte & Touche management audit recommends consolidating Operations, Planning & Development, and Marketing into two departments – Expressway and Tourist Services. The Authority carries out the suggestion.
Nov. 13, 1996: Raytheon Aircraft Services signs a 25-year lease to build a $5.9-million, 50,000-square-foot facility, where it will house and maintain business aircraft.
1997: Design and legal groundwork is laid for the $330-million Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector, which also promotes $1-billion growth in the city’s Marina District. Work continues on preparing for E-ZPass with several trial runs of the electronic toll collection system. Toll revenue tops $25 million.
July 14, 1997: Ground is broken for the Raytheon Aircraft Services facility.
March 10, 1998: The New Jersey Turnpike Authority, leading a consortium that includes the SJTA, signs an agreement with a contractor for delivery of an electronic toll collection system.
Nov. 4, 1998: Groundbreaking signals the end of three years of spadework and the start of real earth-turning for the 2.3-mile-long Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector. Its immediate payoff in the Marina District has almost doubled to $2 billion.
Nov. 11, 1998: The first E-ZPass customers are recorded on the Expressway toll-collection system, the first to go operational in New Jersey. A tag-holder from any E-ZPass system can pay a toll at any booth with an E-ZPass sign. By the end of the sixth week, E-ZPass accounts for 23.1 percent of the tolls collected at the Pleasantville Plaza.
Nov. 30, 1998: The South Jersey Transportation Authority collects its first $2 toll at the Egg Harbor Plaza. For the first time since 1969, the Authority has had to raise tolls on the Atlantic City Expressway. The proceeds will fund a $60-million capital improvements plan. Toll revenues top $27.4 million.
1998: A banner year at Atlantic City International Airport. For the first time, passenger traffic topped 1 million, up more than 15 percent year-over-year. The South Jersey Transportation Authority assumes full responsibility for airfield operations from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Sept. 29, 1999: With Gov. Whitman presiding, ground is broken for the Cross Keys Interchange. Serving Gloucester and Winslow townships in Camden County and Washington Township in Gloucester County, it will be the first all-new interchange since the Expressway was completed in 1965.
1999: The first year under the new tolls regimen produces revenues of $44,434,942.
E-ZPass usage grows to 28 percent of all transactions.
July 31, 2001: The Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector opens to traffic after a ceremony presided over by acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco.
Sept. 11, 2001: The impact on Atlantic City International Airport was immediate, as elsewhere, but the Authority developed a campaign to restore confidence in the traveling public that lessened the long-term effects. Visible security measures were taken immediately. ACY was among the first airports in the nation to reopen under the heightened security regimen. Meanwhile, the Authority completed its $12.5-million airport investment -- runway repaving, centerline lights and two Precision Approach Path Indicators, plus a cable arrester system for the Air National Guard.
Vehicular traffic picked up, as vacationers preferred to stick closer to home. Toll revenue reflected a three-month surge, reaching $45,853,899, up 3.5 percent from the year before.
Oct. 1, 2002: Delta Comair begins service between ACY and its Cincinnati hub, from which connections can be made to 115 destinations around the world. In its 11th year at ACY, Spirit Airlines expanded its schedule to include flights to Detroit, Denver, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
Aug. 1, 2002: The Transportation Security Administration assumes responsibility for airport passenger screening. Other security enhancements include three miles of 10-foot fencing and closed circuit video cameras at remote-controlled gates to be controlled at the Operations Center.
2002: Visit trips to Atlantic City via the Expressway grow 5 percent to 24.68 million. The Authority opens its 350-space parking lot on Mississippi Avenue, bringing total spaces under SJTA management to 1,875. Toll revenue jumps to $48,532,827.
April 15, 2003: A Memorial Park, a circular garden at the Farley Travel Plaza, is dedicated to State Police and SJTA personnel who have lost their lives in the performance of their duties.
May 2003: HMS Host completes a $5-million, 15,000-square-foot building at Farley to house fast-food restaurants, a gift shop and a visitors’ center.
October 2003: The Huron Avenue ramp is completed, opening access from the Connector to the Trump Marina Casino Hotel and the Borgata Casino and Spa. The Trump Organization paid half the costs.
2003: The Airport adds two new loading bridges at Gates 2 and 5. In November, the SJTA exercises its contractual option to assume control of airport parking and plans to build a parking garage. Passenger traffic rises on scheduled airlines by 17.2 percent year over year. Total count tops 1 million, the second largest number in ACY history.
|
