A one mile portion of the highly traveled Blackwood-Clementon Road in Gloucester Township will be repaved… along with some other improvements… Starting sometime next week after the July 4th Holiday.
This is an almost $2 million dollar contract managed by Camden County, but the work is being done by contractors chosen via a county bidding process.
Back in 2014 a repaving project was done which took about 2 weeks. This new effort seems much more significant as it will take 4 months to complete.
Additional Roadway Details
I had noticed previously that the roadway work was put out to bid earlier this year, and Camden County has it listed on their website as an upcoming project.
So last week I emailed the Public Works department asking for a status of when the work would start.
Well I got the answer in a different way, when area residents started reporting they received a mailed flyer announcing the project. A 42Freeway reader was kind enough to send it our way.
The mailer does a good job of covering the basic details.
Well first let’s clarify where the work will be done.
it’s a one mile stretch from Little Gloucester Road down to College Dr/Laurel Rd.
To put this into landmarks… From the Pep Boys/Starbucks intersection, down to the Shoprite intersection.
This is a core commercial portion of the roadway, but does not include down past Highland High School and the Route 42 exits.
The information provided to area residents states the timeline is 120 calendar days (weather permitting)
Project Highlights
- Stormwater Improvements
- Traffic Signs and Striping
- Pedestrian Ramps, Concrete Curb, Sidewalks and Driveways, Asphalt Driveways
- Road Resurfacing.
While the date is set for next week, this is very early in the project. Pre-construction meetings are just taking place. It may be a few weeks before we see any real activity on the roadway.
So I am trying to get extra details on some of the aspects of the project but that may take a bit.
First, I am curious about what “Stormwater Improvements” are… will they be replacing the underground stormwater pipes? Changing water inlets?
The third bullet refers to new curbing and sidewalks… Mostly I think the roadway has curbing and sidewalks? So where does that come into play? Well at intersection corners I imagine they will ,ake them handicap accessible.
We’ve been told unofficially that they roadway will be open during all of the reconstruction.
County Roadwork – Status Updates
The Public Works department of Camden County provides a section of their website for mostly weekly project updates… for residents!
It’s honestly a very impressive thing they are doing, to keep people informed!
I honestly don’t know of any Government Agency providing this level of detail.
So for this Blackwood-Clementon Road project an area of the page has been designated, but as one would expect there are no updates. Yet. The project hasn’t started.
For example, with the Berlin-Cross Keys Road rebuild project they have broken the reports out into the four different contract.
It appears that Contract 2 was most recently completed, and for both of the first 2 contracts the County provides 57 different updates!
And each update provides a nice summary of what was recently accomplished, and what is expected to be accomplished in the next two weeks!
Honestly… I wish the NJDOT would do a similar public status report for their Direct Connection project in Bellmawr. Camden County is light-years ahead of the NJDOT regarding keeping the public informed of project statuses.
So I look forward to updates on the Blackwood- Clementon Road project on the Current Projects page of the Camden County Website
Blackwood-Clementon Development Projects
The Blackwood-Clementon commercial corridor has seen a lot of new development projects come along; completed, in process and future… and this upgraded roadway will definitely be a help to commuters and shoppers on the busy commercial corridor.
Demolition of multiple buildings recently took place for development of a Wawa and ModWash carwash.
ShopRite will be moving to the closed former K-Mart.
A new Burger King just opened, and so did Chipotle… and a WingStop is planned for the same building.
Plus Royal Farms, Republic Bank are open, and a new Giant Fitness is coming!
Links and Locations
Blackwood Clementon Road Repaving and Upgrades
College Drive to Little Gloucester Road
Gloucester Township NJ
Camden County Public Works Status Reports
Bonus Images: Demolition Updates
On June 16th we reported on the demolition of the former Entenmann’s Center and Rita’s Water ice… ahead of the start of Wawa construction.
We also had aerial images of the ModWash carwash location.
So while it’s only been 2 weeks, I had my drone with me on Blackwood-Clementon so I grabbed this updated images.