Council awards contract for Route 70 upgrade Left-turn lane onto Chambers Bridge to be expanded BY DANIELLE MEDINA Staff Writer Brick Township officials are hopeful that some of the congestion on Brick's major thoroughfare will be eased by a road improvement slated to begin in April. The left turning lane from Route 70 west onto Chambers Bridge Road will be extended from 350 feet to 650 feet, allowing an additional 20 more cars to stack up in the lane. "The council and I have been working to develop real solutions to the traffic problem on Route 70," Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said recently. "This project is a result of our efforts. I am confident that when it is complete, traffic will be flowing better on Route 70." Township Council members voted unanimously to award the $137,113 contract to Earle Asphalt Co. at the March 18 council meeting. Township Administrator Scott M. Pezarras said that the project might even come in under budget because Earle Asphalt is already working on another job on Chambers Bridge Road and all of the company's equipment is nearby. "There is a lot of cost involved in getting the equipment to the site," Pezarras said. "That is why we wanted to strike while the iron was hot and award them the contract." The project, which is being funded through a grant from the State of New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund, is expected to begin within 30 days from March 18, the date the contract was awarded. Officials said that the reconfiguration of the intersection will take place at night to minimize the impact on traffic. "It would be a disaster to do this during the daytime," Pezarras said. Addressing the traffic problems on Route 70 and other areas of the township was one of the pledges the mayor and Republican dominated council made during their campaign. "In the past, people have said that we had no say in what happens on Route 70 since it was a state road," Acropolis said. "The days of excuses are over. This project is proof that we can make our voices heard and that we have the ability to make change happen.We will continue to do so since that is what we were elected to do." Councilman Anthony Matthews said that the council is also waiting on approval from state Department of Transportation officials to extend the two left turn lanes from Route 70 onto Brick Boulevard. That project, he said, will hopefully begin in the fall. "We've attended a lot of meetings about these projects,"Matthews said. "It's very satisfying to see them coming along."