Route 130 South in Cranbury to be Resurfaced

A four-mile stretch of Route 130 south in Cranbury will be resurfaced in Spring 2012, according to the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Construction will extend from the intersection of Cranbury Circle at Main Street to Dey Road. It is part of a regional maintenance program, and will involve nightly lane closures, said New Jersey Department of Transportation spokesman Tim Greely.

Cranbury Township Committee Republican candidate Karen Callahan collected about 150 signatures on a petition, which she said she presented State Senator Linda Greenstein (D-14) in September. Greenstein sent a letter to the NJDOT, urging the agency to address the problem, Callahan said.

“Windows actually shake in the area and pictures on the wall move because of excess movement on the roadway,” Callahan said. “The asphalt expands and appears like a speed bump and when a truck goes over it, it makes a large booming sound.”

Stockton Drive resident Kevin McConnell, whose backyard faces Route 130 south, said he constructed a fence and two waterfalls to mitigate the traffic sounds, but it didn’t help.

“It has gotten to the point where during rush hour I can’t leave my sliders open and can’t go out on my deck because it’s too loud to make life enjoyable” McConnell said. “The noise is so annoying.”

Greely said his agency knew of resident concerns and had already planned the Route 130 roadwork before receiving the petition.

“We certainly do encourage residents and local officials to notify us of any concerns that they have anywhere on our state highway system, but in this case we had been moving forward prior to any communication from Cranbury residents or officials,” he said.

Greely did not have an estimate on the cost of the Route 130 south resurfacing project through Cranbury, which he said is part of a larger project.  

The northbound lanes of Route 130 in Cranbury will also be resurfaced, as part of a 15-mile project through parts of North Brunswick, South Brunswick, Cranbury and East Windsor, Greely said, but that project is still in the design phase and won’t begin for a year or two. That project is estimated to cost about $15 million, he said.

Township Committee member Jay Taylor said he is pleased that Route 130 will soon be repaired.

“The issue on Route 130 has been pretty bad for a long time and we have gone to the county and been told that it hasn’t been the right time to repair and it’s nice to see that the DOT recognizes the need for 130 to be repaved.”