Alexander Road closed for about two weeks because of emergency bridge repairs

Alexander Road is closed near the canal at the border of Princeton and West Windsor until further notice while emergency bridge repairs are made, officials said Monday afternoon.

The bridge over the Stony Brook is closed to all traffic. The project will take about two weeks, but officials said that is just an estimate. Officials will not know the exact timeline for the reopening of the bridge until after part of the bridge is demolished. The date is also dependent on the weather. Bad weather could cause delays for workers.

Currently the Dinky train shuttle is still not in operation. Substitute buses have replaced the Dinky. Those buses normally travel over the bridges on Alexander Road. When the bridges are closed, the buses use an alternate route that adds time to the trip. The bus schedule has been adjusted by NJ Transit. Click to view the revised schedule.

14 Comments

  1. What a load of crap! so the buses will have to go down Washington extending the already inconvenient trip! Those poor commuters

  2. The way they do things here it will take 2 weeks just for the workers to figure out where to stand around. Would be less of a problem if the Dinky was running. I have a feeling it’s not coming back. Would be nice if NJ Transit could inform us.

  3. God forbid there had been any foresight to build more than one overpass over Route 1

  4. This will be a royal mess. Due to poor, irresponsible planning for DECADES, the traffic between Route 1 and Princeton is already unacceptable even without this situation. This is the result of totally incompetent state and local government. The more we pay, the worse it gets. What a ripoff!

  5. Great. Even more traffic forced into Route 1 between Alexander and Hamilton.

    The state of New Jersey needs to exercise eminent domain of the Sarnoff property and build an overpass over Route 1.

  6. Trying to get to Princeton Junction is extremely difficult now. Had the Dinky returned mid-January as promised, this would be less of a problem. Any chance NJ Transit can get the single car, single track shuttle going again to alleviate some of the congestion, and perhaps even make life a little easier for their customers? A recording constantly apologizing for the inconvenience isn’t really customer service.

  7. I am one of those “poor commuters”. Today it took me about 30 minutes for a drive usually taking 10 to navigate through different but equally-congested roads to cross Rt. 1 and reach Princeton Junction station. Don’t dare to think about tomorrow. Would appreciate it if authorities can keep us posted on new development and finish the project ASAP.

  8. Alexander is due to have the three bridges rebuilt in the fall so it was surprising to learn that there would be emergency repairs now. It turns out that yesterday they discovered that the stringers under the bridge had deteriorated and that the bridge was unfit as a result. So they are doing some emergency work to get it to last until the fall. A bit reminiscent of the Harrison St bridge some years back, there was a lot of criticism of the decision to rebuild it, that changed shortly after when the bridge collapsed under one of the trucks working the site!

  9. Took me 40 minute from wawa to just get to work on Alexander and 1. Gonna be an awful 2 weeks and fall commuting season.

  10. Let’s hope they replace the bridge entirely! This is essentially a one-lane bridge if any truck or bus is traveling across. There is beautiful 21st century overpass on Alexander across Route 1 which then merges to a quaint 1700’s style bridge into Princeton. Talk about time travel!

  11. Greg
    April 11, 2019 at 1:18 pm
    “Let’s hope they replace the bridge entirely! ……..

    There is beautiful 21st century overpass on Alexander across Route 1 which then merges to a quaint 1700’s style bridge into Princeton.”

    That is what they are going to do starting in the fall.
    “Each lane of the new bridge over the D&R Canal will be two feet wider, and there will be a five-foot shoulder on each side.”

    The D&R bridge over the canal was built in 1948 and the Stony Brook bridge was built in 1999, that is the one which has caused the present closure.

  12. “The 1999 bridge is the one that is causing the present closure.” Is this correct? How can it be possible that a 20-year old bridge needs to be closed for emergency repairs?

  13. It certainly was reconstructed in 1999, my recollection that the state only wanted a temporary replacement and ultimately would prefer a straightening out of the road (my neighbor recalls the same thing).
    Here’s the result of a survey in 2015:
    “Good/Fair/Poor Condition: Poor
    Status: Posted for load [P]
    Average daily traffic: 12,389 [as of 2015]
    Truck traffic: 4% of total traffic
    Deck condition: Good [7 out of 9]
    Superstructure condition: Fair [5 out of 9]
    Substructure condition: Poor [4 out of 9]
    Structural appraisal: Basically intolerable requiring high priority of replacement [2]
    Deck geometry appraisal: Basically intolerable requiring high priority of replacement [2]
    Water adequacy appraisal: Equal to present desirable criteria [8]
    Roadway alignment appraisal: Equal to present minimum criteria [6]
    Channel protection: Bank is beginning to slump. River control devices and embankment protection have widespread minor damage. There is minor stream bed movement evident. Debris is restricting the channel slightly. [6]
    Pier/abutment protection: Navigation protection not required [1]
    Scour condition: Bridge foundations determined to be stable for the assessed or calculated scour condition. [8]
    Operating rating: 25.0 tons [22.7 metric tons]
    Inventory rating: 15.0 tons [13.6 metric tons]
    Sufficiency rating: 16.1
    Recommended work: Replacement of bridge or other structure because of substandard load carrying capacity or substantial bridge roadway geometry. [31]”

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