Drivers who rely on Princess Road as a shortcut between Princeton Pike and Franklin Corer Road will have to find another route.
That’s because Lawrence Township officials have installed orange barriers across Princess Road near the roundabout, or traffic circle, at The Gatherings townhouse development.
Installation of the barriers, which were put in place last month, marks the first step toward evaluating whether Princess Road should be permanently blocked to “through” traffic by creating a cul-de-sac. This would turn Princess Road into a dead-end street.
Municipal Manager Kevin Nerwinski said the barriers were put in place in anticipation of Amazon opening its “last mile” delivery station in a 340,400-square-foot warehouse at 10 Princess Road.
The closure of Princess Road is intended to mitigate potential truck and commercial vehicle traffic through the residential portion of Princess Road, including, but not limited to, The Gatherings age-restricted community, Nerwinski said.
“Although there is no set timeframe for evaluating the impact on area traffic, I imagine we will be in ‘evaluating’ mode for quite some time. This is because we remain in a pandemic with less commuting traffic,” he said.
Nerwinski estimated that the barriers will be in place and the situation will be monitored until the beginning of 2023.
Residents in the age-restricted development have been pressuring Lawrence Township officials to create a cul-de-sac for years. They have complained that large trucks use Princess Road as a shortcut, occasionally damaging the landscaping in the two roundabouts in their neighborhood by running on top of them.
The trucks are traveling to and from the warehouses on Princess Road, near Princeton Pike. The Gatherings development is located on Princess Road, near Franklin Corner Road. A cul-de-sac would prevent the trucks from passing through the townhouse development.
While The Gatherings residents have expressed their concerns about through traffic over the years, those concerns were heightened by the Lawrence Township Planning Board’s approval of the warehouse at 10 Princess Road in 2018.
The new warehouse dwarfs the other warehouses on Princess Road. It was built on speculation, and remained empty until the Planning Board approved changes to the site plan that cleared the way for it to become an Amazon delivery station in November 2020.
Amazon’s last mile delivery station is not the same as Amazon’s fulfillment center. It is called a last mile delivery station because it is the last stop before a package is delivered to a customer’s door.
A fulfillment center is a warehouse stocked with items from sellers and suppliers. The items are stored until they are ready for distribution to in-in house Amazon delivery or for delivery to shippers such as FedEx and UPS.
A last mile delivery station receives the items from the fulfillment center. Amazon Flex drivers, independent contractors and Amazon’s delivery service partners pick up the orders, place them in the vehicle and deliver them to the customers.
Once they learned of the Planning Board’s approval for the last mile delivery station, The Gatherings residents presented a petition to the Lawrence Township Council in December 2020 to request a cul-de-sac to be installed on Princess Road.
But Lawrence Township officials had already pledged several times over the past few years to consider creating a cul-de-sac on Princess Road near The Gatherings development. It would require a traffic study to determine the feasibility of closing it off permanently.