S.B. gets approval for completion of Route 522
Permits are on the way for last section of east-west thoroughfare
BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer
South Brunswick Sentinel, November 26, 2008
The state Department of Environmental
Protection recently told South Brunswick officials that they would get
the permits needed to complete construction of Route 522 between Routes
130 and 535 near the New Jersey Turnpike overpass by early next
year.
The township is hoping to complete
construction of the county road's final twomile stretch by the end of
2009.
The decision comes after a long negotiation process. South Brunswick's
Traffic Advisory Council, including member Al Kady, has been working on
this effort for four years, according to township spokesman Ron
Schmalz. Developers in town are
paying for part of the construction effort, relieving the town of some
of the roughly $6 million worth of construction expenses, Schmalz
said.
In addition, the township was granted the permits necessary in order to
install traffic lights and widen the intersection at Deans Rhode Hall
Road and Fresh Ponds Road. In the case of both this intersection and
Route 522, state land is needed.
These permits are long awaited and eagerly anticipated by officials and
residents, officials said. Truck traffic is commonplace on local roads
near New Jersey Turnpike Exit 8A and the completion of Route 522 would relieve truck
traffic in the area by offering truckers another way to get to Routes
1, 130 and 27, Councilman Joseph J. Camarota Jr. said.
"That is why it was so important,"
he said.
The completion of Route 522 is
preferable to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority's original proposal of
Route 92, a toll road that would go from the Turnpike exit in
town to Route 1.
Camarota said Route 92 was disliked by
residents and officials due to the need for condemning homes and
filling in a greater amount of wetlands. He noted that the plan for Route 92 was several decades
old and it would have added at
least 8,000 vehicles of traffic onto Route 1 at Ridge Road.
Roughly three acres of wetlands would be filled in adjacent to Pigeon
Swamp State Park, Camarota said. In exchange, the township gave the
state 50 acres for the purpose of preserving it as open space.