Six-month closure of Alexander Road for bridge projects slated to start Nov. 6

Alexander Road in Princeton near the West Windsor border will be closed for just under six months starting in November so the state and county can replace two bridges and a culvert.

The projects are slated to start on Nov. 6 and end by April 20 of 2020.

Commuters are dreading the closure. Alexander Road was closed temporarily for utility work this spring and the closure created traffic jams on other roads and major delays.

The New Jersey Department of Transportation is replacing the bridge over the D&R Canal. Mercer County is replacing a culvert and the bridge over the Stony Brook. Princeton University gave $250,000 to the county to pay for design plans for the county project.

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. Some residents welcome the widening of the bridge as a safety measure. The existing lanes are narrow, and Princeton University’s Tiger Transit buses must travel across the bridge. 

The bridge over the D&R Canal was constructed in 1948. The three-span, simply supported bridge carries a timber deck overlaid with asphalt and rolled steel beams below a 6-foot wide timber sidewalk. The bridge has one travel lane in each direction and no shoulders, and is currently open to traffic with a 20-ton vehicle weight restriction. The bridge is located within the Delaware and Raritan Canal Historic District, the Camden and Amboy Railroad Branch Line, and Princeton Basin historic districts.


8 Comments

  1. the state and county DOT needs to get on it and make plans to modify the traffic lights at the route 1 intersections at Washington, Harrison, and Alexander streets.

    try contacting these guys with our concerns (they were not very helpful to me but perhaps with an increased volume of emails they could be prompted):

    orrespondence.unit@dot.nj.gov
    and

    Kimberley Nance
    NJDOT-Regional Manager
    Office of Community Relations
    V: (609) 530-2110
    kimberly.nance@dot.nj.gov

  2. Why didn’t they start this project as soon as the University let out for summer break….they could have 3 months of work done before school started again !

  3. Have we gotten an answer about whether there will be pedestrian access to the towpath from the north side during the closure, and the ability to cross Alexander Rd on the towpath as well?

  4. For the love of God. Please make the new bridge wide enough so traffic flows smoothly and continuously in both directions. The current bridge is fine but inept drivers (including Tiger Bus) can’t seem to navigate it without stopping. Frustrating as heck

  5. The new bridges should be pre-fabricated, trucked in (or by rail), and installed in under 3 weeks. Many other states utilize this method to reduce the intense congestion and pollution created by these boondogles.
    Like other posters, this project should have been completed over the summer when schools and the University were on recess.

    6 months is unacceptable for such a critical corridor. The mayor and Princeton Police Chief should let the DOT and County know this time frame is not acceptable.

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