Part One – New Jersey Archives (continued)
From the git-go the US Department of Transportation intended on connecting US Route 78 with NJ Route 27 and accessing Newark, US Route 22, Newark Airport, the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike – but balked. Primary reason? Projects costs would rival excavating another Holland tunnel across the Hudson. The Northeast is a high-cost building area and Jersey is top of the list. But there was another problem.
Rocks.
Huge ledges of boulders, overlooks and escarpments that towered above the intended pathway of US Route 78. The Towns of Summit, Mountainside, Berkeley Heights, Warren and Bedminster abutted this planned route. In geographic parlance, this corridor was smack dab in the middle of the “Second Range of the Watchung Mountains”.
It took years of blasting and grading, millions of dollars and a hero’s roster of construction companies but finally, in 1989, US Route 78 was opened to traffic heading East to North Jersey – and West to Pennsylvania – at its intersection with US Route 287.
People could turn off Routes 287 North or South, take the Exit for Route 78 East and head straight to Northeast Jersey (and, ultimately, New York City if they wanted to). People from North Jersey could drive West, straight through to Pennsylvania and beyond. It was a God-sent convenience for truckers, people commuting to NJ jobs up North and a boom to Real Estate markets in the distant suburbs down around the Flemington – Hunterdon County territory. Opening that final section of Route 78 was a key that unlocked tremendous economic development at and nearby everything it touched. But there was a hefty bill to pay. The project was lengthy, constantly overbudget and plagued with problems from its inception.
Politicians filed lawsuits challenging the locations of entry and exit ramps. Environmentalists sued in Federal Court seeking to protect the habitations of certain bird species and fox populations. A Leni Lenape Indian Tribe sued to halt blasting around what they claimed was a traditional tribal burial grotto in Mountainside. Work accidents, equipment thefts and excessive workers compensation claims dogged the Companies who won their “Bids” to work what was to be the great New Jersey “construction bonanza” of a lifetime. But for New Jersey Constuction Unions, it was a dream come true. A real-life full season of The Sopranos.
Rank-and-file workers grumbled that the project was cursed. It was a surprise to absolutely no one, then, when on April 22, 1987, a Bulldozer being operated by Georgio Enstansao was swallowed whole down a collapsed schist ledge on the siding of Route 78 East. He was twenty-year employee of Lanza Construction Company and married father of three from Ironbound, Newark.
Enstansao was working a ripper-equipped Caterpillar bulldozer moving large seams of Jersey schist (a granite-like igneous rock) broken loose by blasting to clearings that had been opened up by even more blasting. When he maneuvered his ‘dozer as far inside the designated area he could, his bottom fell out. The huge machine tipped forward and down into an enormous void that had collapsed inward taking him with it. Only the back end of the bright yellow Caterpillar could be seen deep in the hole when the dust cleared. That’s when the screaming started. Workers heard Enstansao scream for ten minutes straight. Strange animal-like screeches and howls followed – then nothing.
Site Boss Michael Dinunzio brought up two more large bulldozers and a crane and pulled Enstansao’s machine upward and out of the void. What they saw enshrined forever the cursed reputation of the Route 78 final connection project in New Jersey.
The Caterpillar dozer’s drivers’ cab was swathed in blood and ribbons of flesh. A sickening red sludge covered the engine compartment and parts of the blade. Wedged under the driver’s seat was Enstansao’s head – missing its eyes and brain. A dangling windpipe was under the gap that was supposed to contain his lower jaw.
Project Shop Steward Ben Santos almost immediately started yelling for Site Boss Dinunzio. Santos was screaming and gesturing down the hole.
“There’s red eyes down there!! Red fu_ckin’ eyes, Man!! Somethin’s down there!!!
Dinunzio peered down into the pitch darkness – then saw it. Red eyes. Eyes burning “like red coals on a barbeque” he would later say. His solution was textbook New Jersey practicality.
“Dynamite it”. He announced.
Dinunzio knew damn well that any delays or investigations would slow down the job – and Lanza Construction Company was paid in phases. He had to complete all debris removal in this sector, or he wouldn’t make payroll.
“We fished Giorgio’s dozer out of the hole and got it running again,” said Santos. “But what do we do with his head?”
“Throw it back into the hole before we set off the dynamite charge” Dinunzio responded. “Backfill what’s left of the opening and then wait an hour before you call the State Police. But keep the crews working. Tell’ the cops we know nothin’. Just that there was a cave in an we lost a guy down a hole. There’s no body. Let’s get movin’…. we got a road to build.”
The New Jersey State Police report memorialized exactly what Shop Steward Ben Santos told them – that there was a cave in and they lost an employee named Georgio Enstansao of Ironbound, Newark. The body was not found. It was buried under a rock collapse.
Location? US Route 78 Mile Marker 36. US Route 78 Exit 36 – King George Road.
And the City? Warren.
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