Jones Lang LaSalle
State to talk about Rt. 22 fixes
Public invited to meeting tonight in Somerville
By KARA L. RICHARDSON
Staff Writer
SOMERVILLE -- Short-term solutions to improve a dangerous two-mile stretch of Route 22 will be discussed tonight at the Somerset County Administration Building, where New Jersey Department of Transportation representatives will be available to answer questions.
From 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. today in the Freeholders Meeting Room, at 20 Grove St., interested residents can visit the project's public information center. The $4.5 million proposal is designed to improve safety at accident and bottleneck trouble spots between Route 202-206 and Chimney Rock Road in Bridgewater. Construction to improve the stretch of highway is set for 2010.
Pete Ahlert, 41, said he will be at tonight's meeting. Ahlert has lived on Somerville's Grove Street near Route 22 for 12 years. He worries about the proposed changes and how they will affect him and his neighbors.
"I'll listen to what they have to say," Ahlert said about tonight's meeting.
Ahlert said he's not troubled by the traffic in front of his home, but the Grove Street interchange is listed as one of Route 22's most dangerous areas.
The Department of Transportation's other areas targeted for safety improvements include:
The area near the Lone Star restaurant, Route 22 between North Bridge and Grove streets
The North Gaston Avenue and Adamsville Road median U-turns next to Midas and Bridgewater Diner (formerly Felix No. 9);
The bottleneck along eastbound Route 22, east of Route 202-206, near Mountain Avenue.
Other long-term Route 22 improvement projects are looming.
County officials have said a project to build an interchange and overpass at Route 22 and Chimney Rock Road could break ground this spring.
The entire long-term proposal, called the Route 22 Sustainable Corridor Project, has been estimated to cost $100 million.
Freeholders would like eventually to build a "suburban boulevard" -- a parallel deceleration lane for local traffic.
The plans call for building an express highway in the center median that would link Route 202-206 and Interstate 287 to through traffic, with limited crossovers to the local lane to serve businesses, offices and neighborhoods.
For that to happen, the county has to shrink the median to make room for express lanes. Doing so would mean eliminating three businesses and a single-family home from the center median. The business properties -- Midas, the Bridgewater Diner and the Lone Star restaurant -- would be acquired by the county, and the businesses would relocate.
The former Felix No. 9 Diner reopened as the Bridgewater Diner in February after a five-month renovation.
Kara L. Richardson can be reached at (908) 707-3186 or krichard@c-n.com.
State to talk about Rt. 22 fixes
Public invited to meeting tonight in Somerville
By KARA L. RICHARDSON
Staff Writer
SOMERVILLE -- Short-term solutions to improve a dangerous two-mile stretch of Route 22 will be discussed tonight at the Somerset County Administration Building, where New Jersey Department of Transportation representatives will be available to answer questions.
From 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. today in the Freeholders Meeting Room, at 20 Grove St., interested residents can visit the project's public information center. The $4.5 million proposal is designed to improve safety at accident and bottleneck trouble spots between Route 202-206 and Chimney Rock Road in Bridgewater. Construction to improve the stretch of highway is set for 2010.
Pete Ahlert, 41, said he will be at tonight's meeting. Ahlert has lived on Somerville's Grove Street near Route 22 for 12 years. He worries about the proposed changes and how they will affect him and his neighbors.
"I'll listen to what they have to say," Ahlert said about tonight's meeting.
Ahlert said he's not troubled by the traffic in front of his home, but the Grove Street interchange is listed as one of Route 22's most dangerous areas.
The Department of Transportation's other areas targeted for safety improvements include:
The area near the Lone Star restaurant, Route 22 between North Bridge and Grove streets
The North Gaston Avenue and Adamsville Road median U-turns next to Midas and Bridgewater Diner (formerly Felix No. 9);
The bottleneck along eastbound Route 22, east of Route 202-206, near Mountain Avenue.
Other long-term Route 22 improvement projects are looming.
County officials have said a project to build an interchange and overpass at Route 22 and Chimney Rock Road could break ground this spring.
The entire long-term proposal, called the Route 22 Sustainable Corridor Project, has been estimated to cost $100 million.
Freeholders would like eventually to build a "suburban boulevard" -- a parallel deceleration lane for local traffic.
The plans call for building an express highway in the center median that would link Route 202-206 and Interstate 287 to through traffic, with limited crossovers to the local lane to serve businesses, offices and neighborhoods.
For that to happen, the county has to shrink the median to make room for express lanes. Doing so would mean eliminating three businesses and a single-family home from the center median. The business properties -- Midas, the Bridgewater Diner and the Lone Star restaurant -- would be acquired by the county, and the businesses would relocate.
The former Felix No. 9 Diner reopened as the Bridgewater Diner in February after a five-month renovation.
Kara L. Richardson can be reached at (908) 707-3186 or krichard@c-n.com.
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 12:04 PM
<< Home