Maybe it’s our location in central New Jersey, but it seems that in recent years there’s always been road construction or repair going on somewhere in West Windsor or Plainsboro, and I don’t mean just that associated with new housing development. In addition to local township roads, we have more than our share of state and county roads, as well.
New signs announcing a detour are going up all the time. The most recent is the one for the repaving by the county of Cranbury Road from its intersection with Millstone Road in Grovers Mill to Route 571. According to town hall, the job will take two weeks and will be done so that local residents will have access to their driveways while the work is in progress. Hopefully this will be a straightforward job without the unforeseen complications that sometimes come up — and not just with road construction. People who drive in the area have already been alerted by the “DETOUR” signs directing them to use Clarksville Road and 571 instead of Cranbury.
But signs that call attention to road repairs are not always easy to understand, especially when they remain in place for a long time and there’s no indication of any construction activity associated with them. A good example of this is the project that resulted in the presence of the signs on Meadow Road near its intersection with Clarksville Road. The first sign says: “ROAD WORK AHEAD” and a little farther on “TRUCKS ENTERING ROADWAY.” At that point, on the right, is a large clearing with a bunch of large-diameter corrugated pipes stacked up as if they were about to be used for something — maybe some kind of drainage system.
If you approach that part of Meadow Road from the other direction there’s a sign that says “CAUTION CONSTRUCTION AREA AHEAD.” Then comes another “TRUCKS ENTERING ROADWAY.” If you pass that area once in a while you might begin to wonder where the trucks are that you’re being warned about, and why the signs are still there if they’re no longer needed. Well, the trucks were there a couple of years ago, but the project they were helping with didn’t work out.
It turns out that at that location a part of the West Windsor municipal sewer system was going to be extended beneath the Amtrak railroad tracks. The work was completed — with the help of the warning signs, of course — but the sewer extension didn’t work, so an alternate plan had to be proposed. Rather than take all the signs down and put them back up again, they were left in place until Amtrak approved the new design. That approval is now expected in another few weeks. If all goes well, the work will be done this summer and the signs will be gone.
Another sign example is the work that will start soon on Alexander Road between Vaughn Drive and Route 1. Some weeks ago signs went up that said on or about June 6 road work would begin and that you should expect delays. Anyone who is familiar with that road knows that the right lane on the west-bound side has been in terrible condition for many years, so the word of improvements was welcome news. But then what happened after a suitable waiting period of a few weeks was that some work was done on the curbs, but nothing at all on the paving.
And the signs were moved, leaving the impression that repaving was just wishful thinking. But after another few days, the signs were back, and still using the June 6 start date — now almost to July — giving hope that repaving would actually be done after all. Then it was made known by the township that repaving of the whole road in both directions would indeed be done, but at night — implying that the delays would not be significant for most drivers. That was good news, but we’ll have to wait and see.
These most recent road projects will be noteworthy partly because they will be done at a time when West Windsor is teeming with the traffic that goes along with our highly developed township.
When I first became aware of the need for roads to be repaved, the situation was quite different. In the 1950s and ’60s many roads were not paved at all, and those that were were covered with gravel and tar — if you can call that paving. Route 1 in those days used the ultimate paving material — concrete. The problem with concrete, however, was that it sometimes cracked, and loose pieces could get displaced, with serious consequences to traffic. Part of the problem then was, of course, that the technology needed for the use of petroleum-based paving materials like asphalt didn’t exist as it does today.
Another nearby road that was once paved with concrete was Route 130. Eventually, it was converted to asphalt, but without removing the underlying concrete, which, as was the practice, was divided into segments with a small ridge of tar between them to form an expansion joint. As a result, when you drive along parts of Route 130 today you can hear and feel the slight bumps as you go over the old expansion joints in the old concrete paving under the asphalt.
The most elaborate paving job I remember was the one that involved the realignment and widening of Route 571. When I came here it was a two-lane road paved with gravel and tar. It followed a route along what are now known as Hendrickson Drive and McGetrick Lane. And there was no commercial or residential development all the way along it from Alexander Road to East Windsor. It was mainly used as a way to get to the shore.
Although it was called Princeton-Hightstown Road, few used to actually go to Hightstown. And the portion of it from Route 1 to Princeton Junction wasn’t even paved all the way. Part of it was dirt and gravel. We all know how important it is today, both for people who live here and for those who want to get through West Windsor as quickly as possible.
Today my favorite road improvement story comes from Princeton, where a large portion of Route 27 (Nassau Street) was recently repaved by the state. Nearly two miles of the road was done, not in downtown Princeton, but from Snowden Lane almost to Kingston. I’m not sure when the job was
done, but it may have been over a year ago. Yet all the signs associated with the job are still in place, starting with one on Nassau Street near Nassau Hall. “ROAD WORK NEXT 9 MILES,” it says. That’s all the way to the center of Kendall Park.
Today there’s no sign of any “road work” being done anywhere in that entire nine miles, although there are lots of patches of new asphalt along the way. Near Kingston there is a separate job going on these days involving the repair of the Millstone River dam at the end of Lake Carnegie. That has nothing to do with the “9 mile road work.”
There will be a number of projects on roads in Princeton this year, but will any of them involve the “next 9 miles”? It seems unlikely. Why not take down the unnecessary signs?
