Thursday, July 26, 2001 | 11:09 a.m.
ATLANTIC CITY -- After five years, nine homes demolished and a whole lot of litigating, the $330 million Atlantic City tunnel project opens to traffic this week.
But the decision to build it will likely remain controversial long after casino-bound cars and buses begin streaming through it Friday.
Demanded by a casino mogul who has since cashed in his chips, the Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector prompted the development of the Borgata casino, a $1 billion project now under construction in the marina district.
It is eagerly awaited in neighboring Brigantine, an island community whose only access route will be connected with the roadway, reducing long traffic delays.
But critics call it an ill-advised "road to nowhere" that wreaked havoc on a stable black neighborhood while providing a taxpayer-financed handout to Mirage Resorts Inc.
"It's just been one mistake after another, leading right up to now. And who suffers? The taxpayers and the citizens," said Pierre Hollingsworth, 70, who was forced to move from his Horace J. Bryant Jr. Drive home, one of nine razed to make way for the tunnel.
"There's no reason for a grand opening now. They should have it when they have a casino to show for it," Hollingsworth said.
That won't be until 2003, when The Borgata is scheduled to open.
The state agreed to build the 2.2-mile road-and-tunnel link at the request of former Mirage Resorts chairman Stephen A. Wynn.
Wynn, a popular casino operator who left Atlantic City in a huff because of strict state regulation, demanded the improved access as a condition of his plan to build a $750 million casino on a piece of marina district land called the "H-tract," where a municipal landfill once sat.
Twice as expensive to build as the Hoover Dam, the Atlantic City-Brigantine Connector was to be paid for by the state ($220 million) and Mirage ($110 million).
City and state leaders hailed it as the key to a long-awaited "second wave" of casino development, but it quickly became a lightning rod for criticism:
--Worried residents said the project would destroy their west side neighborhood.
--Casino owner Donald J. Trump and then-Hilton Hotels Corp. executive vice president Arthur Goldberg denounced the state's underwriting of the project as "corporate welfare" that unfairly favored an out-of-state company over casino companies that had already invested in Atlantic City.
--A group of mayors filed a lawsuit to block the use of _$95 million from the state Transportation Trust Fund to help pay for the roadway. "I believed then, and still do, that spending so much to assist one private developer was an inappropriate use of state funds," said H. James Polos, former mayor of Highland Park, one of the plaintiffs.
"Those monies would have been better spent on projects throughout the state. We have failing infrastructure all around New Jersey. The state could have looked to the casinos for more, instead of using government dollars more prudently spent on other transportation-related projects," Polos said Monday.
The lawsuit was one of more than a dozen filed over the tunnel.
But the promise of new casinos and the support of then Gov. Christie Whitman, powerful state Sen. William L. Gormley and Mayor James Whelan helped keep the project on track.
The Bryant Drive homeowners agreed to $200,000 buyouts by Mirage, courts refused to block construction, and Trump eventually changed his tune when the state agreed to build a special ramp providing access to his Trump Marina Hotel Casino adjacent to The Borgata site.
The ramp, which will cost $12 million to build, will be funded jointly by Trump and the South Jersey Transportation Authority. Work on it will not begin until next year, however.
"Since the access was provided, I'm in favor of it," Trump said Monday. "It's not that I was totally opposed to it. I was upset that a lot of money was being spent and we were purposely being shut out."
As for his contention that the connector would hurt Boardwalk casinos: "It'll be interesting to see what impact it has."
The road, which curls off the foot of the Atlantic City Expressway and loops around beneath it before going underground for 2,200 feet along Penrose Canal, also gives eastbound U.S. 30 traffic signal-free access onto the Brigantine Bridge.
Just as importantly, it gives Brigantine traffic quicker, easier access off the island.
"It's a project that guarantees the safety of our residents and visitors," said Mayor Philip Guenther. "It will bring thousands of jobs and a billion-dollar investment. Thousands of people will benefit from having development on the H-tract."
But Wynn, ironically, isn't one of them.
Last June, Mirage Resorts was bought out by MGM Grand Inc. in a $6.7 billion merger. Wynn's original proposal, meanwhile, is still on hold.
To some in Atlantic City, having the casino mogul deal himself out before the roadway opened was the final insult.
"Gov. Whitman and all the people involved -- including Mayor Whelan and those on City Council who supported it -- ought to give a public apology for allowing Steve Wynn to come in here and sandbag them," said Hollingsworth.
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