A section of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority that has remained a frustrating two lanes for 70-plus years took a first major million step to getting supersized.
Turnpike Authority commissioners approved a $25.5 million contract Tuesday with a Rockaway-based engineering firm to design the first section a larger project to widen the Turnpike between exits 1 and 4 in South Jersey. It’s the first of eight design contracts that will lead to construction, said Michael Garofalo, authority chief engineer.
“Section eight is the first design contract,” he said of the section between Cherry Hill and Mount Laurel.
Commissioners voted to award the contract to T.Y. Lin International of Rockaway, the lowest bidder of three firms, to do the final designs for the northernmost section of the proposed widening between Mount Laurel and the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
Theproject, which encompasses a 36.5-mile stretch from Exit 1 to Exit 4, would add one lane in each direction to end traffic congestion on what officials said is the last section of the Turnpike mainline still in its original two lane configuration.
The project passes through 16 municipalities in four South Jersey counties.
This contract picks up on a March 2021 contract awarded to AECOM of Piscataway to do preliminary engineering work on the Exit 1 to 4 widening.
While not as controversial as the proposed $10.7 billion project to widen the Turnpike extension from Newark to the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City, the Exit 1 to 4 widening has some opposition. An online petition started last year has 260 signatures asking Gov. Phil Murphy to stop the project.
Authority officials justified the proposed South Jersey widening because the highway has been taxed by development and growth in the 18 towns surrounding the Turnpike in Salem, Gloucester, Camden and Burlington counties.
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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @CommutingLarry
