Route 206 in Princeton to be closed for bridge project starting after Independence Day
Route 206 between Lovers Lane and Carter Road will be closed for the rest of the year as of July 6, state officials said today. The road will be closed for the rehabilitation of the Route 206 bridges over the Stony Brook.
Contractor South State, Inc., is scheduled to close Route 206 in both directions near the Stony Brook bridges after midnight on July 6. The contractor will reconstruct the stone arch bridge and the adjacent flood channel bridge.
There will be two detours in place during construction—one for cars and another for trucks. Local access will be maintained for residents and businesses on Route 206, including the Hun School. NJ Transit Bus Route 606 will be detoured during the construction, with several stops on Route 206 not being served.
Detour Route
Northbound – From Route 206 north, traffic will be directed to take a left on Carter Road, right on Rosedale Road, and then a right on Elm Road back to Route 206
Southbound – From Route 206 south, traffic will be directed to take a left on Lovers Lane, right on Mercer Road, and a right on Hutchinson Drive back to Route 206.
Truck Detour
Northbound – From Route 206 north take I-95 south to Route 31 north to Route 202 north back to Route 206 at the Somerville Circle.
Southbound – From Route 206 south take Route 202 south at the Somerville Circle to Route 31 south to I-95 north back to Route 206.
The $7.4 million state-funded project will rehabilitate the historic stone arch bridge over Stony Brook and replacing the adjacent flood channel bridge, both of which are located between Quaker Road near the Hun School and the Jasna Polana Country Club.
The stone arch bridge, constructed in 1792 and widened in 1916, was closed in February of 2016 for emergency repairs following a partial parapet collapse. The adjacent flood channel bridge is in poor condition and will be replaced with a single-span bridge. The repair is being done at the same time as the stone arch bridge rehabilitation to minimize the impact to traffic, officials said. The project also includes other road improvements. The project is located within the historic districts of the Princeton Battlefield/Stony Brook Settlement Village and the Kings Highway Districts. State officials said they have worked very closely with the State Historic Preservation Office and Princeton Historical Preservation Committee from the beginning of the emergency repair in February 2016, throughout the design process, and will continue to do so during construction with archaeological monitoring and documentation taking place.
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.
The traffic coming home from work in Trenton has been “fun”. My normal 30 minutes commute has been extended 20 minutes. That’s almost 1 hour to drive the 14,5 miles from the office in Trenton to my home in Skillman.