Work Ongoing to Repair Route 1 Flooding Issues

Township officials are hopeful that a state Department of Transportation drainage improvement project to Route 1 will be completed by the time summer hits.  The project is intended to reduce flooding on an approximately one mile stretch of Route 1 near the Ridge Road intersection that has caused constant difficulties during storms.

"This is an area that floods out the northbound side of Route 1 during medium storms, and during heavy storms it floods out both sides of the highway" said Public Affairs Coordinator Ron Schmalz.  "This is a much needed drainage improvement."

The $600,000 improvements are part of 20 capital projects in Middlesex County that are scheduled to advance with a total of over $175 million in funding under the $3.5 billion Transportation Capital Program, according to the Christie Administration. The improvement program represents the first year of a five-year Transportation Capital Plan that Gov. Chris Christie announced in January.

The program has a goal of putting New Jersey on the path toward fiscal health by prioritizing projects, decreasing borrowing and increasing pay-as-you-go cash funding, according to the administration.

“New Jersey’s transportation system helps drive our economy,” Gov. Christie said via release.  “The projects being funded in the FY 12 capital program reflect our focus on maintaining road, bridge and transit assets in a state of good repair and will benefit residents in every county throughout the state.”

Unfortunately, work to advance the process of widening Route 1 in South Brunswick was not included in the capital plan this year.

"It seems like this is going to continue to be a longer process than we were hoping because there's no funding in the 2011 capital program," Schmalz said. "The state hired a consultant and we had meetings on Route 1 through 2009 and 2010, and the consultant was to have submitted a report, but we still haven't gotten any word on that from the state. We thought we were fairly close to moving forward, but there's no funding for it this year.  Hopefully it will come back in 2012."

Still, the drainage improvements are good news for the township, which has seen constant closures of Route 1 during heavy rainfall.

"The weather has eroded the dirt underneath the roadway, which has caused complications in the pavement," Schmalz said.  "Something had to be done before we had a major dilemma on Route 1.  Whenever we get real heavy rain it just shuts Route 1 down altogether."