N.J. Turnpike gets $42M to widen the NJ Turnpike and make other improvements

MIDDLESEX COUNTY -- Drivers who have been caught in one of New Jersey’s worst bottlenecks call it "The Merge," where traffic heading south on the New Jersey Turnpike is funneled from six lanes to five lanes to three, south of Interchange 8A.

When planners designed the Turnpike in 1951, it would have been hard to imagine how popular the highway would become in southern and central New Jersey for commuters going to their jobs, trucks delivering goods to warehouses and people traveling to Newark Liberty International Airport.

The Turnpike Authority today awarded about $42 million in construction bids toward the $2.7 billion project to widen America’s fifth busiest toll road by the summer of 2014.

The project — the Turnpike’s biggest ever widening project — should solve the Turnpike’s capacity problems in southern and central New Jersey until at least 2040, officials said.

The problems are most striking during holidays, when the highway is choked on Friday night and Sunday afternoon with vehicles driving to and returning from their destinations.

From June to August 2008 between exits 9 and 6, there were traffic backups of three miles or more on 46 different days.

The areas between exits 9 and 6 — a stretch of 35 miles — will have six lanes in each direction and could separate cars from trucks.

"We don’t think we’re relocating the issue; we think we’re resolving the issue," said Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, executive director of the Turnpike Authority.

Under the project, an extra lane would be added in each direction to the five lanes already in place each way in Middlesex County, from Interchange 9 in East Brunswick Township to 8A in Monroe Township.

Then, three lanes would be added in each direction to the three lanes already in place each way from 8A to Interchange 6 in Mansfield Township, Burlington County.

Work is being done to clear trees and relocate pipelines and fiber optics. Construction should be in full swing by the end of the year, Turnpike Authority chief engineer Rich Raczynski said.

Lowest-bid contracts awarded yesterday were:

• $24.8 million to IEW Construction Group of Trenton for construction of the mainline outer roadways from mileposts 51.5 to 52.3 in Mansfield Township. The contract also calls for a culvert extension, two stormwater basins, numerous sign structures and retaining walls.
• $14.4 million to D’Annunzio and Sons Inc. of Clark for adding an extra lane between mileposts 74.3 and 82.3 in Middlesex County, modifying the deceleration and acceleration lanes at the service area at Exit 8N and building a noise barrier and four variable message signs.
• $797,231 to Central Jersey Landscaping Inc., of Chesterfield for restoration of about 18 acres in Bordentown Township by planting 6,700 trees.

Also, $2.1 million was awarded to Verizon Inc. for relocating underground and overhead communication cables.

Widening the Turnpike was seen as a priority in Gov. Christie’s transition team reports released last week, but transportation advocates say the dollars would be better spent elsewhere.

Kate Slevin, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a policy watchdog organization, called plans to widen the Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway "expensive projects not proven to reduce long-term congestion."