By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
The Princeton Township Committee has applied for $800,000 in grants from the state Department of Transportation to improve roads and pedestrian pathways.
The township’s highest priority is to improve the safety conditions on the portion of Cherry Valley Road between Griggs Drive and Route 206 and connect portions of a pedestrian pathway system at Cherry Valley Road’s intersection with Route 206.
Improvements would include eliminating drainage ditches and widening and reconstructing the road. Approximately 1,500 feet of 16-foot-wide blacktop pathway for pedestrians would be added to the existing pathway on the west side of Griggs Farm continuing east on Cherry Valley Road, crossing Route 206 and connecting to a pathway in Montgomery.
Township Engineer Robert Kiser said the Township Committee will also ask the state DOT to paint a crosswalk where the path crosses Route 206.
The township is requesting $250,000 from the state DOT to pay for this project and the Montgomery Township Committee is asking the DOT for an additional $250,000 since parts of the project are in Montgomery, Mr. Kiser said.
Princeton Township’s second priority municipal aid roadway project involves repairing, resurfacing, installing curbing and improving drainage on Hilltop Drive, Mansgrove Road and Woodland Drive in the area where they form a rectangular-shaped neighborhood. The township is asking the DOT for $200,000 to complete this project.
In the “Centers of Place” grant category, the township is seeking $150,000 for the construction of a pedestrian pathway on Valley Road that would run between Witherspoon and Harrison streets.
The township’s second priority project for this grant category is the installation of a new segment of the Stony Brook regional bicycle and pedestrian pathway, which would run from the Route 206 side of Hutchinson Drive in the Washington Oaks development to the campus of The Hun School of Princeton, stretching for about a half-mile. The township is requesting $200,000 for this project.
Mr. Kiser said he expects to hear the DOT’s responses to the township’s request in November and that if the all the money requested is granted the projects will begin next year.
”Princeton Township has received over $4 million in grants from the DOT over the past 19 years,” Mr. Kiser said.
