After years of delays, the completion of Lakewood Township's Vermont Avenue Extension project is finally set to get back on track, FAA News has learned.
The New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT) has finally granted the Township the necessary permits for the project, and Lakewood's Township Committee has already awarded the contract for the road work.
Photo is from the Township's groundbreaking of Vermont Avenue in November 2017.
Township officials have long planned for the Vermont Avenue Extension, which aims to provide a new north-south travel corridor, hopefully easing somewhat the congestion at the very busy intersection of Chestnut and New Hampshire Avenue.
The project required extensive permitting from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection as well as the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
Back in 2020, as Township officials realized that permits for the improvements at the Route 70 intersection would take extra time, they worked out a deal with state officials to permit them to construct phase one of the roadway between Chestnut Street and the Wawa stub, while they worked on finalizing permits for the remainder of the project.
On May 21, 2020, Lakewood's Township Committee awarded the contract for the first phase to The Earle Companies of Farmingdale, NJ for $1,596,813.13.
Tree stub removal and soil erosion control installation began in June 2020. Infrastructure work began in August 2020. Stormwater improvements were installed in September 2020. Sidewalks were installed on the west side in December 2020.
Along with the road improvements, Lakewood MUA water service improvements as well as gas main were installed in the project area.
The work was substantially completed in June 2021. At that point, Township officials were optimistic that permits for the remainder of the project would be received "imminently." They were also optimistic that the State would permit for the roadway to be opened at least for one-way travel until the work could be completed all the way to the Route 70 intersection.
Alas, that did not come to fruition, as the state said that the new roadway could not be opened until the entire project all the way to Route 70 was complete.
The final State authorization has now been received.
The Township Committee has awarded the road work contract to Black Rock Enterprises, LLC, of South River, New Jersey for $3,218,793.45. (A to Z Site Contractors of Jackson, NJ was the apparent low bidder, however they indicated there is an error in their bid and they therefore request that it be rescinded; the bid from Black Rock Enterprises was the next lowest responsive and responsible bid.)
The improvements will include widening the northern approach to accommodate the additional travel lanes, as well as installation of sidewalk and pedestrian crossings across Route 70, and modifications to the traffic signal to sequence it to the traffic signal at the Airport Road intersection.
Engineering design of the completed intersection
Township officials are in the midst of setting road schedules with the contractor. The State prohibits certain road work within their right-of-way during the winter months, so that may cause delays to the work schedule.
Conservatively, the new road is likely to open to traffic sometime between next Pesach and the following Sukkos (April 2024 - October 2024).
All together, the road contracts total $4,815,606.58.(In late 2020, the Township was awarded a NJDOT grant of $551,000 which will offset this cost). This amount does not include the cost of the engineering, designing, and permitting of, this project, for which, Remington and Vernick Engineers has been working diligently for several years.
Once phase 2 of the project is complete, the new sidewalks will meet the existing sidewalks in front of the Wawa project on Route 70. Additionally, as part of Ocean County's traffic signal project at Locust Street and Vermont Avenue, in June 2020, Ocean County - through a shared services agreement with Lakewood Township - installed a sidewalk along Vermont Avenue on the side of the funeral home. Once phase 2 of the project is complete, the sidewalk on this side of the road will be fully connected.
As previously reported here on FAA News, Township officials have also advanced plans to additionally pave Vermont Avenue from Essex Street to Oak Street. State permits for that project remain pending.
In the meantime, the new Vermont Avenue Extension can connect to Vine Street, where work remains underway to connect to Cedar Bridge Avenue.
As previously reported here on FAA News, work continues on Ocean County's long $2.2 million traffic safety improvements project along Cedar Bridge Avenue. Once complete, Lakewood Township's Vine Street Extension project will be opened with a fully operational traffic signal.
To join a FAA News WhatsApp Group, click here.
To join the FAA News WhatsApp Status, click here.
2 comments:
Great!
This road will allow Lipa Klein's shuttle buses get from Belz to Oak and Vine.
A-Z cannot compete with a union company, Earle will put it to shame.
Post a Comment