Council endorses move from two lanes to three
By: Matthew Armstrong
The widening of Route 1 from two to three lanes is moving ahead, but it likely will be at least five years before the work begins, said Department of Transportation spokesman John Dourgarian.
"We completed the traffic study, which showed that the project was necessary, and the expression of support from the communities involved will allow us to move forward," said Mr. Dourgarian.
The Township Council last week endorsed the widening of Route 1, which will allow the project to move on to the preliminary engineering stage.
"This is critical to our township, and the traffic going through the township," said Council member Frank Gambatese.
Widening Route 1 to three lanes in both directions would bring the seven-mile stretch between Independence Way and Finnegans Lane in conformity with Route 1 to the north and south. The project also would affect intersections along the roadway. Those changes will be studied in the project’s preliminary engineering stage.
The township has been asking the DOT for years to widen Route 1 to alleviate congestion from merging traffic.
"It certainly is needed," said Councilwoman Carol Barrett. "It doesn’t make sense that the rest of Route 1 should be three lanes and here it should be only two. The traffic bottlenecks in South Brunswick."
The council’s endorsement of the project includes only the widening, not any changes to affected intersections. Because a portion of the widening is in North Brunswick, the Township Council there must endorse the widening before the project can move forward.
Preliminary engineering studies will assess potential environmental, community and traffic impacts from the widening. A major part of the study, Mr. Dourgarian said, will be deciding how to change the intersections.
"We have to look at each intersection and see how it functions," said Mr. Dourgarian. "Some may warrant overpasses. Some could be kept jughandles or the median could be closed. But we’ll have to discuss any of these options with the community to see what the community wants."
In addition, funding for the project still needs to be identified. The DOT will have to weigh the importance of Route 1 widening against the need for other road projects in the state to determine priority, said Mr. Dourgarian.
"This is still years and years away," said Mr. Dourgarian. "At a minimum it would be five years."