South Brunswick Still Awaiting Route 1 Expansion

For decades, weary motorists traveling through the township on Route 1 have found themselves locked in traffic jams on a daily basis, as the road shifts from three lanes to two.

It's estimated that in order to expand Route 1 into three lanes on both the Northbound and Southbound lanes through South Brunswick, it would cost anywhere from $300 to $500 million dollars. As steep as the price may seem, anyone that lives in the township or travels through this stretch of Route 1, cannot argue that, “it becomes impossible to get in and out of town during work hours,” Mayor Frank Gambatese said.

According to Public Affairs Coordinator Ron Schmalz, “Since the mid-1980’s, South Brunswick has been trying to get passed by the state the expansion of Route 1.”

However, Gambatese stated, “If Governor Jon Corzine was re-elected I believe this proposal would have already been passed. As it stands, I do not think that the expansion will happen in my three years remaining as mayor.”

In 2005, both Schmalz and Gambatese were part of a commission that traveled to Washington D.C. to present their proposal for the expansion of Route 1. This resulted in the 2006 transportation bill being passed.

Gambatese stated that after the state reached the multi-million dollar projection, “We were able to lobby for $12 million dollars. This gave the state enough money to put together a planning group to study the expansion of Route 1.”

New Jersey also asked for the township to begin acquiring the land necessary to expand the national highway. Displaying a map of South Brunswick, Schmalz showed how in about a year the town had been able to purchase a significant amount of land necessary for the project. However, there is still plenty more land that must be acquired by South Brunswick and money to be raised before the project can move forward.

Gambatese noted how he is part of the Central Jersey Transportation Forum, which consists of seven local mayors.

“The group attempts to put pressure on the state for expansion,” Gambatese said. “We have written numerous letters to the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Governor’s office. We work with the state to help the process, but it all comes down to funding.”           

Unfortunately, a lot of the money that could have been used for this project was spent on the building of another highway.

“The state was going to build Route 92 from the New Jersey Turnpike to Route 206. There was a fortune spent on Route 92, which could have been used on the expansion of Route 1,” Gambatese said.

According to the mayor, the money that was allocated for the construction of Route 92 was redirected by then Governor Corzine for the expansion of the Turnpike.

Both Schmalz and Gambatese stressed the negative effects caused by the current two-lane setup on Route 1.

“South Brunswick is unique in that it has three major U.S. highways, and a lot of the highways criss-cross the township. This doesn’t help with traffic and causes environmental issues, with all of the cars stopping and going,” the mayor said.

Schmalz pointed out how the quality of life is impacted, due to the amount of vehicles traveling on Route 1 and the traffic caused by this.

“You can hear the traffic from Route 1 throughout various parts of South Brunswick,” Schmalz added.

While waiting for the proposal for the expansion of Route 1 to be approved, the same highway will be getting paved beginning on May 15, and continuing into June.

“The paving will reduce the cost of repairs on automobiles," Gambatese said. "Since there is no way to avoid the amount of holes on Route 1, it is necessary to at least pave.”

While this may cause more traffic during the time that the paving is taking place, it should be welcomed by travelers on Route 1 that they won’t have to worry about shelling out money on their vehicles because of the damage caused from traveling on the highway. In the mean time, the township will continue to work hard on getting their proposal passed, as bottleneck relief still appears to be years away.