The reconstruction of Brickyard Road received the green light.
Cranbury Township officials received welcome news this past week when the township was awarded a grant for the total of $570,000 to be used to reconstruct part of Brickyard Road.
The grant was awarded from the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT).
According to Cranbury officials, the grant will be used to help the township add to the $750,000 in agreements with the developer, Veridan.
Veridan was the firm that also constructed the Amazon and Wayfair facilities in Cranbury.
The $1.3 million from the grant and the agreements will cover the estimated cost of the Brickyard Road reconstruction, according to township officials.
“The reconstruction of Brickyard Road will go from the Hightstown-Cranbury Station Road intersection out to where Brickyard Road joins South Main Street,” Township Committeeman Glenn Johnson said.
He said the township is now preparing bid specifications for the work.
“This road is extensive. It is a very old farm to market road,” Johnson said. “The road was not constructed with a proper base underneath it, so this is not going to be simply a repaving. This will be a rebuilding project, with the road having a proper base underneath and top coat. We hope this will be the preferred route to the Amazon and Wayfair warehouses for any truck that exits the turnpike.”
He said the $1.3 million estimated cost for the project is what the township engineer projected for when Cranbury submitted the application for the grant to the NJDOT.
“We won’t know for certain the true total cost until we receive the bids back and open them. We are hoping $1.3 million or less is what it costs for the job,” Johnson said.
He said receiving the grant was big for the township in a number of ways.
“When you have as much construction in the warehouse district that we have had, you have got to provide decent roads so trucks can come in and out,” Johnson said. “This is an important project in the sense of making a big improvement in infrastructure that allows for the trucks not to have to get close to any of the residential neighborhoods. The amount of the grant was also terrific. The $570,000 is probably the most we have received from the NJDOT in recent memory.”
Mayor James Taylor said that with the funding the township has received, there will be no impact on taxpayers in Cranbury.
“Our engineer also updated me and said that he feels we can start this road project in August or September of this year,” Taylor said.
He said the the township getting this grant was due to the efforts of Johnson, who was mayor at the time when the township applied for this grant in 2018.
“It was really Glenn who spearheaded this effort,” Taylor said. “Glenn’s experience on the Committee, Planning Board and as a Zoning Board member prior was vital to this process. I believe our residents owe Glenn a great deal of thanks for his efforts.”