The Alexander Road Bridge/roundabout is closed, beginning today, Friday, February 13, at 10 a.m., and will remain closed until Sunday, February 15 so that the steel structure from the former bridge may be removed.
The closure is necessary for the contractor to erect the crane on-site and remove the old bridge structure. But state Department of Transportation officials are saying that the roadway will be fully open for the morning commuter traffic on Monday, February 16.
During the closure of the roundabout, traffic will utilize the same detour as used previously during the closure of Alexander Road — commuters will take Washington Road (Route 571) to access Route 1.
The Department of Transportation had to coordinate efforts to close the bridge with Amtrak, which runs trains under the bridge and will be affected by the work. This is because an outage is required on the
tracks. Amtrak has to switch all of its electric engines to diesel, and a diesel crew has to run in order to turn the power off on the track.
The closure was originally scheduled for the weekend of January 16 to 18, but subsequent alerts canceled the closure because of the projected increase in Amtrak’s services from Boston to Washington for President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh and other township officials have been saying that once the steel from the previous bridge is completely removed, then PSE&G can come in and relocated the utility poles so that lighting in the area will be possible. Commuters have complained that the roundabout is hard to navigate at night because of a lack of lighting.
NJDOT officials opened the new $12 million Alexander Road bridge over Amtrak in December.
The new bridge over the New Jersey Transit Northeast Corridor and Amtrak train tracks – replacing the original and outdated bridge built in 1941 – is a single-span steel superstructure bridge that carries two 12-foot lanes, two 4-foot shoulders, and 6-foot sidewalks on both sides.
