Still about a year away from beginning the project, Mercer County officials are estimating the Old Trenton Road bridge over the Assunpink Creek will come with a sixth-month full road closure.
The bridge, located between the intersections of Edinburg/Windsor/Old Trenton roads and Robbinsville-Edinburg and Old Trenton roads, coming from Robbinsville, is in poor condition. Mercer County officials discussed the project in front of a group of about 40 residents on July 14.
County engineer Greg Sandusky explained to the residents that every county bridge is inspected bi-annually and is rated on a scale of one to 100. “The current rating of this particular structure, based on the last inspection, which I believe was done in 2009, is 22.9,” he said. “The overall condition of the structure is poor.”
Sandusky said county officials want to keep the road’s current alignment to prevent cutting into the surrounding areas protected by wetlands and Green Acres designations. The proposed length of the bridge will be 62 feet, while the width would be 53 feet, four inches.
Along with the new bridge will be changes to the intersections to help improve traffic flow in the area, where rush hour commuters are faced with long delays.
“The traffic now in this particular area developed the need for a left turn lane, as you approach Edinburg Road, of 450 feet, which is substantial,” Sandusky said. “There will also be a through-lane and also a right-turn lane coming into it. Also, at the intersection of Robbinsville-Edinburg Road, we would provide a 150-foot turn lane and also construct a traffic signal here, which is really needed.”
The proposed bridge will contain three 11-foot lanes, two six-foot shoulders, and a six-foot sidewalk on the Mercer County Park side of the road. The parapets of the bridge will be one foot, two inches wide.
This particular project is unusual, as it relates to environmental concerns, explained Sandusky. “Not only do you need a freshwater wetlands general permit and stream encroachment permit (from the state Department of Environmental Protection), but this tract is also impacted by Green Acres.”
For the Green Acres permit, a tree survey was conducted in the area where the road will be widened. On the northeast quadrant, the Mercer County Park side, there are seven trees that will need to be removed. As it relates to the Green Acres requirements, a calculation that takes into account the size and height of the tree is made, and those seven trees are worth $93,372. On the township side of the road, 33 trees at a cost of $163,800 will need to be removed.
So the total cost to the county for replacing the trees will be more than $257,000, Sandusky said.
The acquisition of land — .06 acres on the Mercer County Park side and .2 acres from the township side — would be considered a “minor diversion” by Green Acres, which will cost the county $10,000. This is critical because going for a “major diversion” would require more costs and more permitting. It would also require officials to give back a ratio of 2-1 in mitigation. So, for every acre, the county would need to create two acres of environmentally sensitive wetlands elsewhere in the area.
“That’s why we are trying to keep this project within the same current alignment,” said Sandusky.
Officials will also be faced with time constraints, as wetlands requirements forbid construction work between March 15 and July 1 each year based on wildlife reproduction patterns.
Officials also acknowledged that the closure of the bridge will create an inconvenience for residents.
“It’s really a short-term inconvenience for a long-term improvement,” said Sandusky. “The duration of this bridge replacement project will be approximately six months, but the length, or the lifespan, of this particular structure could be anywhere between 75 and 125 years. Unfortunately, the bridge has to be replaced during your lifetime, but the extended life of this bridge is at least 100 years.”
The proposed detour route that officials are considering takes traffic westbound on Old Trenton Road to Edinburg-Windsor Road, Routes 130, and 33 to get around to Robbinsville-Edinburg Road, and it would be the same the other way.
Sandusky said the county cannot conduct a phased construction, nor can it try to maintain one lane open. “It’s just not wide enough,” he said. “I cannot maintain one lane in each direction and construct half of the bridge and flip it over to the other half.”
When it comes to the other intersection improvements in the area, county traffic engineer George Fallat said officials looked at the accident data and the traffic analyses and found that the left-turn lane at the intersection of Edinburg/Old Trenton roads will improve safety.
“Right now, you have a lead left-turn arrow that comes up and stays on for a certain period of time,” said Fallat. “With the ability of having an exclusive left-turn lane, it gets the left-turning traffic out of the path of the through traffic, which is really critical. By having the dedicated left-turn lane, we are able to make the amount of green time for that left-turn arrow responsive to the volume of traffic.”
If no one is in the left-turn lane, he said, the time would be re-allocated to Old Trenton Road, so it would operate more efficiently.
Addressing concerns raised by some residents and Township Council members leading up to the meeting, Sandusky said “there is no intent from the county to ever make this four lanes,” he said of the road.
“We’re making it three lanes to make it more efficient,” he said. He also said that this type of lane configuration was endorsed by the Planning Board. “We’re trying to make it a less intrusive improvement, and there is no intention to make this four lanes.”
Further down the road, near the age-restricted development, the Elements, there are a “substantial” number of utility poles along the road that would cost the county a lot of money to re-locate, Sandusky said. “We have no intent to make that a four-lane highway along that portion, either,” he added.
During the meeting, residents asked questions about the project, including about the intersection improvements they would see.
According to Fallat, a traffic analysis in 2005 indicated that the traffic congestion rated as an “F” in level of service — the poorest rating available. The improvements would reduce the typical wait of more than 130 seconds to 30 seconds.
Residents asked whether there would be a speed limit reduction through Edinburg Village, along Old Trenton Road.
“There is no proposal to lower the speed limit at this time,” responded Fallat. “That’s something we can look at afterward. Typically, once you have a project completed, you would go out and re-survey. We have to base the speed limit on the actual speed people are going, and that’s state law.”
Pat Ward, West Windsor director of community development, who also attended the meeting, said the township’s police department could monitor the speed in that area. “What we would like to see once the improvements are done is another speed survey,” she said.
Councilman Charles Morgan, however, said he did not believe the county when officials said they would not turn the road into a four-lane highway. “You say there is no intent today, but your intent could change tomorrow,” he said, noting the width of the bridge could provide future accommodations.
He questioned why the county could not abandon its plans for the bridge and realign the road further behind the buildings on Old Trenton Road and out of the way to keep traffic out of the way.
Sandusky said that doing so would become a major diversion, creating the need for removing 1.5 acres (and having to mitigate and replenish 3 acres), and costing between $5 and $7 million.
Morgan said he believed the mitigation number was inflated because officials were not taking into account the area where the bridge is currently located as an area that could return to its natural wetlands state if the county realigned the road.
“The realignment would be very problematic,” Sandusky said, adding that permitting would be harder to obtain, and costs would be substantially more.
Responded Morgan: “What you are doing by building it where you are is you are going to shut down Old Trenton Road for six to nine months and cause a lot of inconvenience, and you are going to exacerbate a safety problem that is off rush hour times, and I have not heard any assessment of the net costs as opposed to the gross costs of doing it. It may be harder to do it, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t a better choice.”
Resident Wayne Tindall had a similar point. Tindall, who is a sixth-generation resident of the Edinburg Village, lives in a house that his great-great grandfather built in 1881. In Edinburg, he said, there are three houses that date to the 1700s during the Revolutionary War period. The Edinburg Hotel, across the street from the Village Pantry, was designated as a landmark building, he said.
“I’m wondering if historical considerations are being made here at all,” Tindall said. “Once that bridge goes in, that would be, essentially, a lifetime commitment of going through Edinburg.”
Tindall said he believes that if the bridge replacement project moves forward, it would mean that eventually, the route would require the Edinburg Hotel to be removed.
He said residents in the area already have to deal with traffic headed to Mercer County Park, where events attract upwards of 20,000 people. “One day, that hotel’s out of here, and those two historic houses (next to it) are out of here, and that’s a reality,” he said. “What I want from Mercer County is some honesty.”
If the county says it does not have plans to make the road a four-lane highway one day, “I would like to a see a commitment from Mercer County that you are not going to expand that bridge,” said Tindall.
