Far and Wide

Massive $900 million, two-county Route 80 project replacing bridges, widen lanes is expected to last 10 years.

By: Megan Burrow
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... A massive $900 million project is being planed to replace bridges and widen lanes on westbound Route 80 form Totowa to Hackensack.
..... Construction on the federally funded project along a nearly 10-mile stretch of highway in Passaic and Bergen counties is expected to begin at Riverview Drive in Totowa in 2027 and be completed 10 years latter, in the fall 2037, at Polify Road in Hackensack.
..... "A number of bridge decks, superstructures and complete bridges within the project limits need to be replaced due to their poor condition," said Steve Schapiro, a spokesman for the state Transpiration Department.
..... A 2-mile section of the highway in Paterson has a bottleneck where four lanes are reduced to three, contributing to severe congestion, and crash rates are higher than the statewide average through the project limits, Schapiro said.
..... "The project is designed to improve all of these issues," he said.
..... the crash rate between Madison Avenue exit in Paterson and the exit for the Garden State Parkway was 2.66 crashes per million vehicle miles traveled, or MVM, between 2016 and 2018, compared with the statewide average of 2.18 crashes per MVM. About half of those were rear-end crashes, also above the statewide average.
..... Under the plan, Workers will make their way east through Totowa, Woodland Park, Paterson, Elmwood Park, Lodi, Saddle Brook and Hackensack.
..... The plan improvements include:
* Replacing eight bridges, 11 bridges superstructures and five bridge decks.
* Repairing, resurfacing or reconstructing pavement, including changing the cross slopes to improve drainage conditions on the roadway, which will reduce contributing factors to the wet surface crashes.
* Reconstructing or resurfacing 28 ramps.
* Improving drainage, intersections, shoulders and auxiliary lanes.
* Providence standard shoulder width and improving sight distance where possible.
* Providing curbs along the corridor.
* Adding noise barriers in Woodland Park, Paterson, Elmwood Park, Rochelle Park, Saddle Brook, Lodi and Hackensack.
..... Officials said the existing numb of travel lanes will be maintain during construction, but there will be temporary lane and ramp closures during weekends or evenings, and additional temporary local road closures might be required.
..... By widening about 1.6 miles of 80 westbound through Paterson to eliminate the existing bottleneck and making other improvements to the traffic lanes and exits in the area, Schapiro said, officials estimate that travel times along the stretch of 80 form the Garden State Parkway to Route 19 will be cut by 40%.
..... Preliminary engineering for the project is expected to be completed at the end of this year. [2024] The Transportation Department is inviting the public to submit comments and questions about the plans to rt80wbpic@gmail.com by April 19. [2024]

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