Route 95/295 ramp closure starts on Saturday

LAWERNCE — Part of a major Mercer County highway interchange will be closed for most of Saturday as an eight-week project gets underway.

Despite the forecast of some wintry precipitation on Saturday, the Department of Transportation will close both the north and southbound ramps to Route 1 from Route 95 north/Route 295 south at Exit 67 in Lawrence from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

"Everything in the forecast looks like it's going to be a minor event so they're planning on going," DOT spokesman Kevin Israel said.

The prep work includes setting up barriers and reconfiguring lanes for the long term project. The northbound ramp will reopen on Saturday evening but the southbound ramp will stay closed until at least eight weeks.

Meteorologist Dan Zarrow said "Saturday certainly won't be as cold and wintry as last Saturday. With high temperatures in the lower to mid 30s, light snow and wintry mix is in the forecast, especially afternoon to evening. Up to an inch of snow accumulation is possible which I'm sure will be inconvenient for construction workers, but this far from a 'big' winter storm."

Saturday is the first day of the $4 million project, which will see the demolition of a deck on the southbound ramp where it crosses over the Delaware and Raritan  Israel said the work is not an emergency but rather preventative maintenance.

“The DOT goes through and services all our bridges over time and it’s this bridge’s time. We do preventative maintenance to avoid there being problems,” Israel said.adding that the 8 weeks time frame takes into account bad weather that could force a suspension of work.

When the southbound ramp work is complete, Israel said that the northbound deck will then be replaced but will not be completely closed.

During the southbound work, drivers will be detoured to continue past Route 1 to Exit 65A for Sloan Avenue in Hamilton where drivers can change direction and get to Route 1 from Route 295 northbound.

However, New Jersey Fast Traffic's Jill Myra said that northbound drivers can also get off Route 95 at Exit 8A for Princeton Pike and Franklin Corner Road.

"That will bring you out to a traffic light at Route 1 where you can go north or south. Myra said that heading north on Princeton Pike will take drivers to Province Line Road between the Mercer Mall and Nassau Park Pavilion shopping areas which also takes drivers to Route 1."

The project was originally scheduled to start last weekend but was postponed by a week due to last weekend's snowstorm.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com.

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