Mayor: DOT to Get Final Approval to Even Up Route 9

The Route 9 repaving project through Barnegat and neighboring towns that had been all but stopped for the summer will likely be nearly complete by the end of June, now that a push from Barnegat mayor Jeffrey Melchiondo and others has encouraged the state Department of Transportation to wrap up the job sooner rather than later.

DOT spokesman Timothy Greeley said the department’s self-imposed rule of banning lane closures on Shore-area roads between May 15 and Labor Day led the DOT to leave the southbound lane of an 11-mile stretch from Lacey to Stafford unpaved for the duration of the summer.

But that meant the two-and-a-quarter-inch grade differential between north and southbound lanes – a significant ledge from new pavement to old – would persist for months, a situation Melchiondo said was unacceptable.

“This is not the kind of project they can just stop in the middle of,” he said.

Township officials were already discussing ways to push the state to get the job done before summer when a was blamed on the uneven pavement.

“It’s unfortunate that something like that has to happen to bring it right to the forefront,” he said. But, he said, when he started making calls about the road condition – to the DOT Commissioner, to the governor’s office – people paid attention.

According to Greeley, the DOT maintains that the grade differential between north and southbound lanes is within allowable project guidelines.

“This is a very common condition for a resurfacing project,” Greeley said. “You can’t resurface eight miles of highway in one night, so this type of condition is necessary to get this type of work done.”

Workers painted a solid double yellow line between lanes and posted clear warning signs before the start of the uneven paving stretch, Greeley said, both required measures to make motorists aware of the fresh-pavement drop-off.

“From our perspective, we have done our due diligence in assuring the current traffic conditions out there are well within project specifications,” he said. The rules against shutting down lanes once summer traffic picks up are in place to make big state road projects like this one easier on the local communities they affect, he said.

But, said Greeley, the DOT was working with local mayors to come up with a remedy. Paving of the northbound shoulder will take place as soon as the current wet spell lifts, he said, which could allow workers to divert traffic onto the smooth stretch while southbound lanes are paved.

As of yesterday evening, Greeley wasn’t able to say for certain whether the entire project would be completed by the end of June.

But Melchiondo said local and state DOT officials had assured him they were waiting only on final approval to move ahead with the plan to keep paving until the job was done – and Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno called him yesterday to “make sure things were moving ahead,” Melchiondo said.

A stretch in north Barnegat near the former Down the Hatch pub that hasn’t yet seen any new asphalt will remain untouched, he said, but DOT engineers have his blessing and that of the Stafford and Waretown mayors to keep working Monday through Friday until the lanes are even, he said.

“Leaving it the way it is to Labor Day just wouldn’t work,” Melchiondo said. “By making some phone calls and talking to people, we’re going to come up with a good solution that makes everyone happy.”