South Brunswick Discusses Route 1 Traffic Solutions

The sight is a familiar one for drivers along the Route 1 corridor. 

They're moving along just fine until they hit South Brunswick and the bottleneck begins as the road goes from three lanes to two.

With little movement in nearly 30 years of waiting for the state to expand Route 1 in South Brunswick to three lanes, officials from the Central Jersey Transportation Forum visited the Township Council last week to discuss a long term strategy to alleviate traffic woes.

"My biggest problem has always been that there is not enough pressure put on the state to really take care of the main issue, which is traffic along the corridor," said Mayor Frank Gambatese. "South Brunswick is the problem. This is where the bottleneck happens. So until they come along and widen that section of the road then traffic is never going to change along the corridor."

The CJTF was established in 1999 to address concerns from municipalities in Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset, and Hunterdon counties along the Route 1 corridor. The key issues discussed by the forum include east-west access, improving coordination of transportation and land use among the various towns, and transit.

CJTF representative William Neary is urging townships affected by Route 1 traffic to adopt a resolution in support of a "Smart Growth" strategy. The "Smart Growth" plan seeks to improve communication among municipalities as to the effect one town's construction and new business plans have on their neighbors in terms of traffic.

The CJTF estimates that traffic volumes on Route 1 are expected to increase by as much as 55 percent by the year 2020, while roadway travel speed will drop by 29 percent. 

Neary encouraged towns to look at long term planning that will review key properties, improve connectivity in towns through the use bike friendly projects, and to expand Route 1 rapid transit programs.

Through coordination with the New Jersey Department of Transportation in partnership with 15 municipalities and three counties along Route 1 between Trenton and New Brunswick, the group hopes to devise a regional strategy for improving the congestion. 

The CJTF estimates that a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, along with smart land use development, the implementation of travel demand reduction strategies and highway improvements, "could reduce the anticipated growth" of Route 1 congestion.

"The BRT has shown the success of the Middlesex County shuttles and has proven there is a need for more mass transportation than we ever have met the need for," Neary told the council.

While discussions have been ongoing for the DOT's concept plan to reduce congestion along Route 1 in the Princeton area, progress on a $300 million to $500 million project to expand the highway to three lanes in South Brunswick has been stagnant since the mid-1980's.

"For us, the obvious thing is adding a third lane in South Brunswick," said Deputy Mayor Chris Killmurray during the meeting. "Just adding the partial right turn lane on Route 1 near Finnegans Lane made a huge difference."

While the township awaits funding from the DOT for the ultimate goal of roadway expansion is still not on the horizon. Until that project begins, officials said, Route 1 in South Brunswick will continue to be a traffic nightmare.

"We'll work with the (CJTF) and support their (Smart Growth) resolution, but until Route 1 is widened all the way down, then traffic will never improve," Gambatese said. "Even if they fix the intersections and repave, it's still not solving the problem by eliminating the bottleneck."