By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Motorists will need to use detour roads around a closed portion of Route 206 in Princeton this summer so that the state Department of Transportation can replace one bridge and repair the stone arch bridge that dates to the 1790s., State representatives were in town Tuesday, for a public meeting in the Witherspoon Hall municipal building, to answer questions about the $11 million project. Some bridge work will start as soon as April 3, but the detour is from July to October. Night and weekend work “is anticipated during critical time periods of the construction while the detour is in place,” the state has said., Both bridges span the Stony Brook, and “will be constructed simultaneously in order to minimize the duration of the detour,” the state has said., Problems surfaced 13 months ago. In February 2016, a section of the 1792 bridge collapsed, leading to emergency repairs and an inspection that found more work was needed. The second bridge “is in poor condition” and needs to be replaced, the state has said., Mayor Liz Lempert, who attended the meeting, said the work is “much needed” but will be “extremely disruptive” in calling for the public’s patience., For car traffic, the state identified a series of detour roads that motorists will need to use. Northbound traffic will take a combination of Carter, Rosedale and Elm roads to get back onto Route 206 and into town. Southbound motorists, on the other hand, will need to use Lovers Lane, Mercer Road and Hutchinson Drive to get back onto the highway. Truck traffic will have a longer route around the area by using a combination of I-95 and Routes 31, 518 and Carter Road., But residents who live in the area said Tuesday that they are concerned about increased traffic and the possibility that truck drivers will try to circumvent the detour., “The detours have been developed and coordinated with the municipality, the Princeton Police Department and Mercer County, who all support the proposed detours during the full closure,” said DOT spokesman Stephen Schapiro by email Thursday. “Adherence to the truck detour is a local enforcement issue.”, As part of the project, the state will rehabilitate the Stone Arch bridge, the oldest crossing in the state still in continuous use. “The rehabilitation consists of removing the fill above the arches, removing and rebuilding out-of-plumb walls with the same stone using a lime-based mortar and constructing concrete saddles and walls within the roadway fill to strengthen and add durability to the structure,” NJ DOT has said., Mayor Lempert said it was important that the work is “done in a historically sensitive way.”, The municipal Historic Preservation Commission will have input in the project, specifically in the masonry work, said commission chairwoman Julie Capozzoli., “We’re working with them really closely so that the masonry is done in a historically appropriate way,” she said., She said the commission will have a consultant, a mason, to help the board., Yet at the same time, she said the 1792 bridge is going to change. The parapet height will be more than a foot high., According to the state, “A reinforced cast-in-place concrete core is used for the parapets for crashworthiness and is faced with existing stone and additional stone to match the existing where required.”, Schapiro said the state had worked with the municipal Historic Preservation Commission and the State Historic Preservation Office, and met “several times” with both groups “during the design phase to examine rehabilitation options and to get feedback from the historic preservation community.”, “All concerns from the Princeton HPC and SHPO,” he said, “have been addressed and incorporated into the design.”
