Route 166 Work Reaches Home Stretch (At Last?) In Toms River

TOMS RIVER, NJ — It's been almost three years since construction workers started putting up barriers and changing the traffic pattern on Route 166 in Toms River for the state project to widen the road at Route 37.

It looks like that project, which has frustrated business owners and residents, is finally entering the homestretch.

Work resumed Monday, with dump trucks and backhoes on the site, adding material at the north end the stretch.

"There is a small section of the Old Freehold Road/Route 166 intersection that needs to be constructed and then paving (will be done on) Route 166 from Old Freehold Road to Route 37," said Steve Schapiro, deputy director of communications for the state Department of Transportation. Most of the work will be done overnight, he said.

The return of the workers for New Prince Concrete, the contractor on the $11.7 million project, was heralded with a Facebook post by Larry Schuster, owner of Schuster's Car Wash, one of the businesses that has been deeply affected by the length of the project.

"We just called in a suspicious person report, there are strange men and vehicles tampering with the vacant construction site in the middle of the road," he wrote in the tongue-in-cheek post. Schuster also submitted the project for recognition to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Guinness officials notified him in February that his application submitted in December nominating it as "the slowest quarter-mile of road construction ever" was officially turned down.

Schuster has not been the only one trying to find humor. Corinne Jewelers, next door the car wash, has changed its electronic message at various points along the way, highlighting the owners' frustration with the slow progress.

During the Christmas holiday shopping season, the message read: "INCONVENIENTLY LOCATED BUT WE PROMISE WE ARE WORTH THE TROUBLE."

Shapiro and other state DOT officials have frequently pointed to the July 2016 shutdown of transportation projects across the state when then-Gov. Chris Christie was demanding the state Legislature agree to a 23-cent increase in the gasoline tax to fund the Transportation Trust Fund. It was October 2016 before an agreement was reached, and the three-month delay led created chaos for the construction, as New Jersey Natural Gas, which had to move gas lines as part of the project, had moved on to other work.

The project has dragged ever since, despite complaints from Toms River Township officials and from Ocean County Freeholder Joseph Vicari.

Shapiro said the project is expected to be completed before Memorial Day, but there is no firm date yet, because the weather is still a bit iffy into April.

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