Road project is nearly done but over budget
Township officials say work will relieve traffic around Rt. 18
BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

Road improvements in the area of Route 18 and Tices Lane in East Brunswick are about 60 percent complete, but the project has run over budget.

Mayor William Neary said the wide-ranging roadwork is designed more to alleviate traffic problems on the roadways around Route 18, including Tices Lane and West Prospect Street. But officials are also hoping that problems with traffic stacking along Route 18 will be improved when the project is done.

Greg Potkulski, East Brunswick’s manager of engineering services, said he hopes the entire project will be completed by the end of May. That is contingent, however, on the cooperation of utility companies, which must move their equipment to allow access to the areas in question.

“It’s all dependent on the utilities,” he said. “If they move by the end of March, we are looking at the end of May to finish it.”

Additional work includes widening along both Route 18 and Tices Lane. A new traffic signal at the intersection of Route 18 and Highland Street should be operational within three weeks, and there are also some median improvements that need to be done.

Potkulski agreed that the work will benefit the streets around Route 18 more than the state highway itself. An example of that is the fact that Tices Lane will be a two-way street between Route 18 and Old Bridge Turnpike.

Tices Lane and West Prospect Street are two of the roads that officials believe stand to benefit the most from the work.

It will also be easier to traverse the area because drivers will now be able to use Tices Lane to get to Old Bridge Turnpike. Drivers will also be able to use a new connector road that will run from Tices Lane, behind the retail outlets, to a new jughandle at Route 18 and Highland Street. The drivers can then go north or south on Route 18.

Neary said the problem with cars stacking along Route 18 will be aided because there will be a longer distance between the traffic signals at two intersections. Currently, there are signals at Route 18 and Tices Lane, then south of that at West Prospect Street, and then at Ferris Street.

But the light at West Prospect Street will be removed and replaced with one at Highland Street. That makes for a greater distance between the light at Tices Lane and the one immediately to the south.

“It will spread out the stacking area with a large distance between the lights,” Neary said.

Other work includes closing an existing jughandle at Route 18 northbound and Tices Lane and replacing it with a reverse jughandle north of the intersection, closing off Highland Street at Route 18, and opening the new jughandle on the southbound side of that intersection.

Neary said the new jughandle, along with the connector road, will mean fewer backups on Tices Lane.

Costs related to the project have run $907,000 over budget, according to a memo from Township Chief Financial Officer L. Mason Neely, and the total cost of the project is now at $6,435,000.

Neary said $350,000 of the extra costs are to relocate the utility equipment, something the companies have so far been unwilling to reimburse. Another $160,000 was used for the new traffic light at Tices Lane and Old Bridge Turnpike, and Neary said he is confident that the county will reimburse the township for those funds.

The township also had to pay more than was anticipated for land acquisition to facilitate the road work, he said. The state approved the plans, then instructed the town that more land would have to be acquired.

The township, which introduced a bond ordinance Monday to cover some of the extra costs, is expected to be reimbursed for the overall project by state and county funding, along with contributions from commercial entities in the affected areas.