By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The state Department of Transportation has floated a “concept” for relieving traffic on busy Route 1 that involves widening the highway and adding jughandles in both directions.
Local officials from the three impacted communities, Plainsboro, Princeton and West Windsor, along with representatives of Princeton University and Princeton Healthcare System met Feb. 4 in Trenton to hear the DOT out.
Officials said the concept is nothing more than that, something the state wants to get feedback on before committing time and money to what could be a $35 million project.
This is the latest effort by the DOT to reduce congestion on that stretch of highway, having pulled the plug on a failed experiment last year to close the jughandles at Washington Road and Harrison Street. The project led to traffic nightmares along Washington Road in the Penns Neck section of West Windsor, as northbound Route 1 motorists were making illegal U-turns rather than using the Scudders Mill interchange to cross the highway.
At the time he ended the experiment in October, DOT Commissioner James S. Simpson promised to keep working on a solution, said agency spokesman Joe Dee on Thursday. Mr. Dee said there is “no timetable” for whether the DOT decides to take on the project, one that still needs a funding source.
West Windsor released a DOT aerial photo of a stretch of Route 1, from about the midpoint of the Millstone River Bridge to the NJ Transit Dinky overpass, that would be the work area.
The concept calls for: adding a fourth lane of traffic in both directions; and locating jughandles on Route 1 about midway between Washington and Harrison Street that would be controlled by a light. A major difference is that northbound motorists would not be able to make a U-turn at Washington Road or at Harrison Street.
On the southbound side, there would be a new jughandle at Washington Road where a former Exxon Station is located, to enable motorists travelling from the direction to cross Route 1.
Princeton University owns the land where the three jughandles are shown in the state’s concept. The university has taken no position on the DOT’s idea but is studying it, said University spokesman Dan Day on Thursday.
”This makes some improvements, but there’s room for modifications,” West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said Thursday of the idea. His community will have a public meeting on the topic Feb. 25 at 10 a.m. in the municipal building.
The same day, the Princeton Council will be look at the issue during its meeting at 7 p.m. Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert said Thursday that she appreciated the process the state is going through, and felt the DOT seems open to suggestions.
