If the N.J. Department of Transportation has its way, Ocean County engineers could find themselves on the hook to address Surf City Councilman Peter Hartney’s concerns over the conversion of Central Avenue into a two-way street in neighboring Ship Bottom.

“In my opinion, this position of the NJDOT is an abdication of the commonsense responsibility of the project to understand and mitigate any downstream impact,” Hartney said in a March 20 response to state transportation officials.