{"id":2630,"date":"2018-12-12T01:09:58","date_gmt":"2018-12-12T06:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=2630"},"modified":"2018-12-12T01:09:58","modified_gmt":"2018-12-12T06:09:58","slug":"state-route-37-166-intersection-to-be-completed-within-weeks-local-officials-angered-by-pace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2018\/12\/state-route-37-166-intersection-to-be-completed-within-weeks-local-officials-angered-by-pace\/","title":{"rendered":"State: Route 37, 166 Intersection to be Completed Within Weeks; Local Officials Angered by Pace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SEA

SEA OF RED: Traffic backed up at the intersection of routes 37 and 166 in Toms River, Dec. 2018. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Tensions between local and state officials have risen over the last month as residents and business owners have grown tired of traffic delays, detours and the slow pace of construction at the intersection of routes 37 and 166 in Toms River.<\/p>\n

The mounting dispute came to a head in recent weeks when two local officials told Shorebeat that representatives from the state Department of Transportation threatened to move equipment to another project in Monmouth County if they continued to complain about the slow pace of the work in Toms River. DOT officials did not comment on that alleged incident, but a spokesperson told Shorebeat that the project to add lanes and improve traffic flow would be completed in \u201cseveral weeks,\u201d though the final paving of the roadway would not come until spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cConstruction on the Route 166\/Route 37 infrastructure improvement project in Toms River is expected to be completed in the next several weeks, at which time Route 166 will be returned to its final configuration adding a lane in each direction to ease congestion on the roadway,\u201d said DOT spokeswoman\u00a0Mairin Bellack.<\/p>\n

As the project currently stands, the state\u2019s contractor is working on drainage improvements by removing the pavement to allow roughly 400 feet of 30-inch concrete pipe to be installed between Route 37 and Old Freehold Road, Bellack said. Once the pipe is in place, the contractor will complete the excavation in the area to prepare for the installation of concrete median barrier curb.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work will be completed in the next few weeks,\u201d said Bellack. \u201cIn the spring when the weather is warmer final paving is scheduled to take place over several nights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Construction

Construction at the intersection of routes 37 and 166 in Toms River. (Credit: WOBM)<\/p><\/div>\n

At a meeting of the Toms River Township council Tuesday night, officials expressed anger over the pace of the project, which has been dragging on since March 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were assured that we would have this done before Christmas,\u201d Council President Brian Kubiel said.<\/p>\n

Councilman Dan Rodrick said the owner of\u00a0Schuster\u2019s Toms River Car Wash told him that the construction project has been costing him $20,000 per month in revenue, and the Shop-Rite supermarket has seen their business decline by 20 percent since the traffic nightmare hit what is arguably the most major intersection in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took over three weeks for the DOT to approve a traffic detour,\u201d said Township Engineer Robert Chankalian. \u201cIt\u2019s very troublesome. I attend these meetings, but the decisions aren\u2019t made at the meetings. They\u2019re sent to Trenton and then we have to wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding insult to injury, Kubiel and Chankalian said DOT officials did not show up to a planned meeting last week on separate improvements to the intersection of Route 37 and Hooper Avenue.<\/p>\n

The $11.7 million project is aimed at improving traffic flow by\u00a0installing a raised median barrier between opposing traffic, improving the roadway geometry, making improvements to traffic lights between Highland Parkway and Old Freehold Road, and widening the roadway by constructing a new through lane on Route 166\u2019s northbound and southbound corridors toward the intersection.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tensions between local and state officials have risen over the last month as residents and business owners have grown tired of traffic delays, detours and the slow pace of construction at the intersection of routes 37 and 166 in Toms River. The mounting dispute came to a head in recent weeks when two local officials […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[134,133,39,11],"class_list":["post-2630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","tag-construction","tag-route-166","tag-route-37","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_3056.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}