The Ocean County Board of Commissioners are finally set this Wednesday to award the long awaited contract to widen Phase I of Cross Street (Route 9 to Augusta Boulevard), FAA News has learned.
County officials are also set this Wednesday to award a contract to repave a section of Massachusetts Avenue in Lakewood and Cox Cro Road in Toms River.
The entire stretch of Cross Street is currently one travel lane in each direction with additional lanes at the signalized intersections.
To alleviate traffic along this heavily traveled corridor, county engineers have worked for years on a project to widen the entire roadway to 3 lanes plus shoulders.
The project will be done in two phases. Phase one covers the 1.4 miles length of Cross Street between Route 9 and Augusta Boulevard. Phase two covers the remainder of the road to Lakewood New Egypt Road.
In phase 1, the project section of Cross Street will be widened with the addition of a center turning lane and an increased shoulder on the westbound side of the road. After construction, this section of the roadway will total 52 feet wide, with two – 12 foot wide travel lanes, a 12 foot center left turn lane, and two - 8 foot wide shoulders.
At the intersection with Massachusetts Avenue, the Cross Street approach will have a 12 foot travel lane, 12 foot left turn lane, a 12 foot right turn lane, and 5 foot wide shoulder and the Massachusetts Avenue approach will have a 12 foot wide travel lane, a 12 foot wide left turn lane, and 8 foot wide shoulder.
This key intersection will also be upgraded with a new traffic signal with dedicated left turning phases in all approaches. This upgrade is expected to greatly alleviate congestion in this entire corridor area.
Stormwater management facilities and improvements to the roadway drainage system will also be constructed.
County officials secured New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection approval for prerequisite environmental permits in Spring 2021. They have since finalized engineering plans and have acquired rights-of-way necessary for the land taking and easements.
Additionally, since that time, County officials have been requiring all construction projects along Cross Street to relocate the utility poles along their property frontage to make way for the county's widening project. This will help speed things up for the county as they now have less poles to relocate.
As previously reported here on FAA News, back in January, the Fairways Homeowners Association delayed this entire project from getting out to bid after they refused to sign off on the right-of-way taking.
As previously reported here on FAA News, in March, Ocean County Superior Court Judge Francis Hodgson put an end to their meddling, which lead to County officials being able to begin the process of soliciting bids for the project.
The bidding process is now complete. The Ocean County Board of Commissioners is expected to formally award the contract this Wednesday to P&A Construction Inc. for $5,485,078.02.
This was the lowest of eight bids received, with quotes as high as $7,000,000.
It is likely 2 more years until construction is complete.
On May 10, Shmuel Binder of LNN published an article with a headline saying "Cross Street Construction Bid Awarded." This is inaccurate. The Ocean County Board of Commissioners are set to formally award the contract this Wednesday.
Also this Wednesday, the Commissioners are set to award a contract to Lucas Brothers Inc. for $665,665 for road improvements to a section of Massachusetts Avenue in front of Hearthstone in Lakewood, and Cox Cro Road in Toms River.
The County is currently also out to bid on road improvements to an additional section of Massachusetts Avenue.
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1 comment:
Can the County also widen Ridge Avenue, currently only one travel lane in each direction, along the entire stretch containing the Kamenetz school? It's about to get even worse because the BMG talmidim will be stuffing more use on that road due to the new Woodlake campus.
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