Thirty-five miles long with freshly painted, white, dotted lines, new traffic lanes opened on the New Jersey Turnpike this weekend as part of its five-year-long widening project.

The $2.3 billion project was launched in 2009 and, for five years, New Jersey Turnpike Authority contractors have been clearing land and paving and painting new lanes in each direction on the highway between Interchange 9 in New Brunswick and Interchange 6 in Chesterfield.

“We’re about to cross a milestone,” New Jersey Turnpike Authority spokesman Tom Feeney said on Friday. “By the time people are driving to work on Monday, they’ll be driving on new lanes.”

Northbound traffic was diverted onto the new lanes early yesterday morning and southbound traffic was to be diverted earlier this morning, Feeney said.

When the entire project is completed, scheduled to be before Thanksgiving, the stretch between Exits 6 and 8a will feature in each direction three lanes restricted to passenger vehicles and three lanes for all traffic. One additional lane in each direction has been added from 8a to Exit 9.

Until November, all traffic will flow on the new lanes while the old lanes are reconstructed, Feeney said.

“People will be driving on a nice new roadway, but it will still be the same number of lanes,” Feeney said. “The real relief is yet to come. When the entire project is completed, that’s when people will see a real improvement.”

For years, southbound traffic immediately slowed to a halt around Interchange 8A in Monroe, where three truck lanes and three car lanes merged into one three-lane highway. Northbound traffic heating toward 8A has also been slowed by lack of sufficient highway space and heavy traffic.

The widening project takes the 8a choke point and moves it into Burlington County, farther south from Interchange 7A in Robbinsville — where thousands of Trenton-based state workers often transfer between the Turnpike and Interstate 195.

“The idea, the purpose of this widening project was to relieve congestion in a very congested area,” Feeney said. “This is the biggest widening in the Turnpike’s 52-year history.”

During the last five years, people living near and around the Turnpike have had their own battles with the highway.

Residents in Hamilton who live along the highway begged for the Turnpike Authority to construct an 18-foot noise barrier wall, but officials denied some requests if they didn’t meet decibel standards or the noise would only affect a few homes.

Municipal officials in Hamilton, Robbinsville and East Windsor also went to court with the state, the Turnpike Authority and the state Department of Environmental Protection over funds that were earmarked for replacing trees cut down to make way for the Turnpike widening.

The case was eventually settled for $11 million, with the Turnpike Authority making annual payments to the municipalities — 2014 is the final year — to use for reforestation efforts throughout each town.

Along with widening came a new interchange at Exit 8 in East Windsor, and a thoroughfare to ease access to the highway for Route 133 motorists.

Contact Mike Davis at (609) 989-5708 or mdavis@njtimes.com.



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