Town Balks at Toll Road Proposed by Planning Commission

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ–The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission is pushing for a new toll road, which is being labeled as Route 92, to connect busy US Route 1 and the NJ Turnpike, two major north-south arteries carrying regional and interstate traffic through central New Jersey. The 6.7-mile roadway would cost at least $300 million, probably more, and it’s the commission’s concrete alternative to “doing nothing, or doing a series of projects that don’t provide that new direct link,” according to a commission spokesperson.

The commission facilitates economic planning on a multi-county basis. South Brunswick, for example, is located in southern Middlesex County, while most of the region impacted by the proposal lies in northern Mercer County.

At issue is the growing commercial development in the Princeton corridor (South Brunswick is located at the northern end of that corridor). Communities to the south of the proposed route support the plan for the most part, but South Brunswick officials aren’t in that group. Community officials there contend that the highway won’t benefit the township at all, at a price of increasing traffic through South Brunswick en route to corporate neighbors down the ‘pike at places like Princeton Forrestal Center. They also assert that wetlands will be destroyed in the process.

The commission contends that over a 20-year timeline, Route 92 will actually ease potential congestion because it will reduce traffic on existing east-west arteries, notably Route 522. “It will cut the number of vehicles on Route 522 by 11,000 per day,” asserts the commission spokesperson, “and by almost 18,000 vehicles per day on several other existing arteries. The area needs easier access to the turnpike.”

The commission’s plan calls for a number of other road projects as part of the package, all aimed at facilitating the region’s commercial real estate growth over the next two decades. They include widening a portion of Route 1 near Princeton Forrestal Center, extending Route 522 from Route 130 to the Turnpike, and several bypass projects.