WILDWOOD-Just days ahead of President Donald J. Trump’s historic visit to Wildwood, Governor Phil Murphy’s administration has announced an emergency closure to Route 47, the main thoroughfare on the island.

According to the New Jersey Department of Transportation, “Beginning at 7 a.m., Monday, January 20, NJDOT’s contractor Mount Construction is scheduled to close and detour Route 47 in both directions between Indian Trail Road and Springers Mill Road for priority repairs to a culvert over Dias Creek resulting in sinkholes that are compromising the roadway. The project is anticipated to be completed by June 2020. Local access will be maintained for residents and businesses.”

Although the culvert repair was a scheduled repair, to be conducted later this spring, the administration pushed the project forward this week.

The road closures are expected to impact motorists traveling to the Trump Rally on January 28th at the Boardwalk Convention Center. The closure will not impact motorists traveling along the Garden State Parkway to attend the rally, but will impact those attendees coming from the southwestern area of the state.

Online, Trump supporters likened the closure to Bridgegate, a plot hatched by staffers of former Governor Chris Christie to create traffic in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The road is expected to remain closed through June.

Joseph Rullo, an online conservative media activist with over 350,000 followers on Facebook criticized the timing of the repairs as a political stunt to cause traffic during the President’s visit.