By Mike Deak, MyCentralJersey.com
July 27, 2023
The state Department of Transportation will be studying ways of improving traffic flow and safety on Route 202 from Old York Road at the municipal building to the Readington border and beyond.
Though the township has yet to receive any maps of how the DOT is considering improving the highway, Township Administrator Greg Bonin told the Township Committee on Monday that restriping the lanes on the highway and adding a third lane may be part of the plan.
Bonin said the DOT study is an opportunity for the township to lobby the DOT to close the unsignalized intersections on the busy highway between Somerville and Flemington.
The unsignalized intersection at Route 202 and Holland Brook Road was the scene on July 19 of a fatal crash that closed the highway for hours.
The DOT has approved the installation of a stop light at the intersection as part of the construction of a 475-unit residential development on the southside of the highway.
However, the traffic light will not be built until the first two phases of the project, which will be done in five stages, are completed. Those first two phases call for 242 units of the apartment and townhome community to be completed.
The DOT closed the intersection of Route 202 and Pleasant Run Road just over the township border in Readington more than 20 years ago because of the number of serious crashes.
Bonin said Police Chief Richard Buck is collecting data of accidents at the unsignalized intersections, including the highway’s other intersection with Old York Road at the Readington border and Huyler Road, to give to the DOT.
“The traffic is going to be a lot worse,” Township Committeeman Thomas Young said, explaining that affordable housing developments in Branchburg and Hunterdon, plus warehouse construction in Raritan Township, will add to the number of vehicles on the highway.
The Planning Board has also approved a warehouse development on Old York Road about a mile north of the highway.
“The DOT has to figure it out,” Young added.
The DOT will begin the study in the fall or spring, Bonin said.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com