WIDE BIRTH: MAPPING OUT THE TURNPIKE EXPANSION

Commuters, businesses anxiously awaiting traffic relief

By: Dick Brinster
   EAST WINDSOR — Mark Platizky has been commuting by bus on the New Jersey Turnpike between his home in Twin Rivers and his job with a financial services firm in New York for 20 of his 50 years.
   He’s able to avoid the pressure of driving, but can’t wait for the time when excessively long rides are shortened by the Turnpike Authority’s $2 billion project to widen the roadway from six to 12 lanes in this area by 2013.
   "It’ll be great when they relieve the nightmare," he said. "It can be real bad with the shore traffic in the summertime, and if it rains, forget it."
   It shouldn’t be any worse even during the planned widening of a 30-mile stretch of the road between Interchange 9 in East Brunswick and Interchange 6 in Florence, according to the Turnpike Authority’s main man on the project.
   Steven Buente, the supervising engineer/planner, says a major goal is to maintain traffic flow and keep safety as a high priority during the construction phase.
   The existing toll plaza will be in operation until the new one is completed, he said. And motorists should expect, for the most part, to be able to maintain normal speeds on the turnpike throughout the project.
   "The new outer roadways can be built without affecting traffic on the existing roadways," he said. "The construction of overhead bridges and tie-ins to the existing roadway will have some effect on traffic speeds during short periods of time, but for the most part traffic should be able to flow pretty much unimpeded during construction."
   With the first shovelful of dirt still more than a year from being turned, Mr. Buente said specifics of the potential need for detours are not yet known.
   The free flow of traffic should help ease the anguish of Vinnie Citarella.
   For the last quarter of a century, he has been an unwilling participant in the traffic circus the turnpike has become in Mercer, Middlesex and Burlington counties.
   The township resident never knows what to expect, nor can he figure out or how long it will take to cover 48 miles between his home here and office in Jersey City. So, the plan to widen the road is something he hopes will provide relief.
   Mr. Citarella, a 51-year-old salesman, is tired of being caught in the traffic crunch created below Interchange 8A in Monroe, where the road narrows from 10 to six lanes. The last six miles to Interchange 8 here can take more than a half-hour to drive during the afternoon rush hour.
   "You get to 8A and it looks clear, and then you find out a little bit down the road that you’re caught in residual traffic from 8 or even farther down," he said. "Sometimes, there’s no way to win."
   The problem of delays is by no means limited to commuters.
   Tom Halligan, executive director of operations for cosmetics giant Shiseido America on Princeton-Hightstown Road, is among those anxious to see the other six lanes of asphalt.
   The plan is to widen the road from 10 lanes to 12 over the 10 miles between Interchange 8A and Interchange 9 and from six lanes to 12 between 8A to Interchange 6.
   "It will only increase our ability to service our customers," Mr. Halligan said.
   Mr. Halligan said Japan-based Shiseido decided to locate its domestic facility in East Windsor because of its strategic location to the deepwater ports of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. But the daily traffic snarl on the turnpike has become an inconvenience to a company that does $6.5 billion in annual business and ships up to 65 percent of its products overseas.
   "Ten years ago was a good time to buy in East Windsor," he said.
   One of the major reasons was the completion the next year, 1999, of Route 133 — a virtually direct 3.6-mile highway between Interchange 8 and the Shiseido plant. But traffic between the East Windsor exit and Interchange 8A has slowed the transit process.
   "The bottleneck at times is delaying the receipt of materials, and the expansion of the turnpike will only benefit us," Mr. Halligan said.