NEW BRUNSWICK — The state Department of Transportation plans to hold an informational meeting from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at New Brunswick City Hall to discuss a construction project along Route 18 north to ease the bottleneck at the merge with the N.J. Turnpike.

The $26 million project, which is expected to begin about Aug. 15 and take two years to complete, will also include replacing the bridge carrying all lanes of Route 18 over Route 1.

The project will add a lane from just north of Westons Mill Pond to the ramp to Route 1 southbound in order to give the highway three lanes for traffic traveling on Route 18 north, according to information from the DOT.

The Transportation Department said it expected the work to be done during off-peak hours, but that there would be detours in place in an area that is one of the worst bottlenecks in Middlesex County.

The DOT said the aim of the project was to ease the merge between northbound traffic coming off the N.J. Turnpike at Interchange 9 with traffic already traveling north on Route 18 or traveling to Route 1 north.

This project will be starting while the N.J. Turnpike Authority is continuing work on the nearly $28 million project that will add expanded ramps, a new bridge over the Turnpike ramps and a realignment of Route 18 away from the residential neighborhood off Naricon Place.

There have been lane closings on both sides of Route 18 associated with the project in which the Turnpike entrance ramp from Route 18 southbound is being widened from one lane to two. Changes are also being made to Route 18 southbound and to Naricon Place to improve access to the Turnpike.

Tom Feeney, a spokesman for the N.J. Turnpike Authority, said in 2013 that the improvements would reduce the amount of weaving drivers have to do to get onto northbound Route 18 from Interchange 9 and to make it easier to merge onto Route 18 northbound.

The state DOT project that is the subject of tomorrow’s public information session will begin where the Turnpike project ends.

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