Route 22 Improvements to Begin This Week

The New Jersey Department of Transportation is preparing to begin its short-term improvements on the Route 22 corridor through Bridgewater and Somerville, with a plan to do the work mostly in the overnight hours.

According to a release from the NJDOT, Green Construction Inc. is planning to begin preliminary construction activity this week, including sign installation and field mobilization.

Available travel lanes will be maintained on Route 22 between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. during the week while construction continues. The work, the release said, is scheduled to be done with overnight lane closures and permanent shoulder closures that will include traffic shifts.

As construction continues, there will be a period of about seven weeks when Route 22 East will be restricted to one lane to allow for ramp work around Mountain Avenue in Somerville.

There will be signs throughout all of the work to indicate traffic patterns to drivers.

This first project is scheduled to be completed in early summer 2014.

The purpose of the work to provide congestion relief and improve safety between the Route 202/206 and I-287 interchanges on Route 22, where about 105,000 vehicles travel per day.

The short term improvements are scheduled to cost about $7.9 million.

Improvements include:

• A new Route 22 East auxiliary lane for the Route 202/206 on-ramp
• A new Route 22 East auxiliary lane from North Bridge Street past Grove Street
• A new deceleration lane on Route 22 West for an I-287 southbound ramp.

There are also plans for design and technological upgrades along the corridor, namely:

• Eliminating median u-turns at North Gaston Avenue and Adamsville Road
• Reconfiguring the intersection of the North Grove Street overpass and Grove Street
• Reconfiguring the Mountain Avenue intersection
• Installing a new traffic signal at the intersection of Foothill and Ronson roads, with the addition of a dedicated left turn lane
• Installing New Intelligent Transportation Systems facilities with three CCTV cameras and five permanent Dynamic Message Signs
• Improving the roadway drainage system and a new stormwater management basin
• Improving highway lighting
• Making access driveway modifications at select businesses.