NJDOT announces upcoming lane shift on Route 29 in Trenton
New median barrier will be installed
(Trenton) The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) today announced that the existing traffic pattern on Route 29 from Calhoun Street to Atterbury Avenue in Trenton will shift starting Monday, August 28. The traffic pattern shift will enable NJDOT to install a new 36-inch high stone median barrier from milepost 3.84 to milepost 4.82.
The installation of median barrier reduces the number of cross-median crashes on roadways. NJDOT identified this stretch of Route 29 in Trenton as a location where cross-median barriers are needed to prevent harmful cross over accidents thereby increasing traffic safety through the corridor.
The new concrete median barrier will be 36 inches high. The median barrier will have a unique colored stone facade which will duplicate the ashlar stone pattern that is used on the nearby Calhoun Street Bridge. The barrier will be installed in the center of Route 29 from south of Calhoun Street to Atterbury Avenue, a distance of about half a mile.
NJDOT scheduled construction of the traffic shift at night in order to minimize traffic impacts. From 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. beginning on Wednesday August 23, and continuing Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, NJDOT will close one lane in each direction in order to resurface the outside shoulders, remove rumble strips and re-stripe the roadway in order to implement the traffic shift.
Beginning Monday, August 28 at 6 a.m., NJDOT will close the left lane on the northbound side of the roadway. The southbound side of the roadway will have a permanent traffic shift that will maintain the current configuration of two through lanes and an acceleration/deceleration lane. The new traffic pattern is not expected to impact the exit ramp for the Calhoun Street Bridge.
The new traffic pattern will form a work zone in the median of Route 29 allowing for the contractor to install the new median barrier. Two lanes of traffic will be maintained throughout the traffic shift, and once the new traffic pattern is in effect, the majority of construction work will take place during day hours within the work zone. The entire project is scheduled for completion in November 2006.
NJDOT placed two variable messaging signs at each end of the project to inform motorists of the construction. Real time travel and construction information is available online at www.njcommuter.com.
