Tired of wide trucks constantly getting stuck on Drake Road? Hopefully that will soon be a thing of the past as Lakewood Township was just awarded a gas tax funded State grant to widen the entire length of Drake Road, FAA News has learned.
Township officials applied for a $2,593,459.01 Municipal Aid grant for improvements to Drake Road / Ridgeway Place, Brookfield Drive, and August Drive.
The proposed project includes improvements to the conditions and safety for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic along the project limits:
• Road removal and paving of these roadways
• Replacement of curb, installation of ADA compliant pedestrian ramps and truncated domes, crosswalks,
• Repair/replacement of sidewalk as required,
• Upgrading storm water inlets with storm water compliant curb pieces and bicycle safe grates,
• Upgrading signage to provide breakaway poles and MUTCD compliant signage, and
• Installation of pavement markings and striping as required
Drake Road will be widened from its existing width of 20 feet to 32 feet, milled and repaved. August Drive will be reconstructed with base course and surface course. Brookfield Drive will be reconstructed with base course and surface course along with new sew storm water drainage inlets and recharge pipe.
Township officials estimated the construction costs to be as follows:
Drake Road / Ridgeway Place $1,117,589.61 (includes relocation of 26 utility poles at $3,500 each, for a total of $91,000)
Brookfield Drive $533,323.33
August Drive $429,854.26
Total Estimated Cost of Improvement
Construction Cost: $2,080,767.21
Design Engineering: $205,076.72
Construction Inspection and Material Testing: $307,615.08
Total Estimated Cost and Requested Amount: $2,593,459.01
Of this requested amount, the Township was now awarded $502,471, plus an Urban Aid allotment of $52,083, for a total of $554,554.
This award is part of NJDOT Municipal Aid, an annual state program which awards grants to municipalities to improve local roads, thereby enabling local governments to significantly reduce or eliminate reliance on local property tax dollars to support their projects. This fund program is part of Transportation Trust Fund reauthorization in October 2016, which raised the gas tax.
As the awarded amount is significantly less than the total amount requested, Township officials will now check their bank accounts to see how much of they balance they will fund and whether any portions of the project will need to be cut out.
They will then direct their engineers to begin designing the project.
To ensure the timely use of grant dollars, State law requires the Township to award the project to a prospective contractor within 2 years from now.
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2 comments:
Hm...
Most of Drake Road already has Zoning and Planning Board approvals which require the DEVELOPERS to widen their frontage of the road to 32 feet wide.
Seems like the Township is using this State grant, - which could have been used for lots of other roads - specifically to help the overdevelopers so they do not need to do the job of widening the road.
I'm also wondering, while reading this post, why Drake Road is being widened, as opposed to so many other roads in this town that need widening. Maybe your reason is correct. Or maybe there are some very influential people residing in that area. Or maybe Drake Road really does need widening more than the other roads. Just wondering...
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