The Wawa construction boom is in full force in the 42Freeway area with buildings and gas station canopies going up in the upcoming Erial and Washington Township locations.
The Blackwood-Clementon Road location looks almost complete looking like August is a realistic opening month (unofficially I’ve heard August 31st).
Lastly I have some information on the proposed Mantua Super Wawa.
While I wrote a Wawa update back in June, it’s really been about two months. You can read that prior update here
The Race is On!
For the Erial and Washington Township Wawas, honestly they look to be at almost exactly the same construction point! It’s a race to the finish!
Although at the Wawa Corporate Hiring website… they list that they will be accepting applications for Erial starting in August, but the Washington Township location is not listed as of yet.
That being said the Five-points Township location can’t be too far behind for hiring!
Note: All of these images in the article were taken at the very end of last week, but I had a busy weekend and I’m just getting them online now.
While it’s only been 6 days max, at this stage of the development game the Wawa contractors are moving very fast so it’s likely that while I am showing the steel frames of the two locations being up, for all I know today there could be walls up!
All three of the under construction Wawas covered here are set-up with the traditional “Gas up front, store in the back” configuration.
Wawa Washington Township (and Burger King)
I’ll start with the Washington Township location at Five-Points because that one I think was proposed before all the other Wawas I am covering here, but just took a longer time to get moving.
This Wawa is being developed at the Five-Points (Same intersection as Seven Star Diner) in a property created by the intersection of Egg Harbor Road and Blackwood-Narnsboro Road.
A Burger King is also being developed to the right of the new Wawa, in the same segment of land.
The Wawa (and Burger King) are oriented to face Egg Harbor Road.
Some may find it amazing that the steel frame structure of the Wawa convenience store building, as well as the gas station canopy… are standing!
I say this because whenever a project is delayed in starting, the Facebook town group commentary first starts with “I bet it was cancelled”, and then 6 months later folks are commenting “Oh I know someone who works for the town and this was definitely cancelled”
Well it seems those naysayers were wrong as significant evidence exists that the Wawa at Five-Points is coming.
As I’ve reported previously, there is also a Burger King being built next to this Wawa and just so happens they’re both going up at the same time
In my drone photos from last week we can see the outline of the ground foundation of the Burger King going in place
Wawa Erial – Gloucester Township
The Erial Wawa is being developed across from the Erial fire station and Rite-Aid.
The property was previously used by a bank and a few residential homes.
This new Wawa is oriented towards New Brooklyn- Erial Rd with the fire hall directly across the street.
As of July 20th the Erial Wawa building frame was standing but they had not placed the exterior walls in place yet. It’s possible they have moved further since then.
Wawa DOES list this Erial location in the hiring section of their website, but the link to apply online is not available yet, and it states hiring will start in August.
Wawa Blackwood-Clementon Rd.
The images from July 20th of the Blackwood-Clementon Rd of the new Wawa show what appears to be basically a fully finished store and gas stations.
At that time some final cleanup was taking place and there was a dumpster in the gas station area, but I have driven by again since then and now the dumpster and other trucks were gone.
That same job hiring page of Wawa does not list this location any longer, which makes me think they have all the employees they need to open up this store!
With all that being said there is no official published opening date for the Blackwood-Clementon Road Wawa but I’ve heard unofficially it is scheduled to open on August 31st
Wawa Mantua
It’s almost two years to the day, 42Freeway reported on plans for a new Wawa in Mantua on Route 45 at Mount Royal Road, to be developed in an open lot directly across the street from an existing classic Wawa (which it would replace)
Little has been heard about the status of this proposed Wawa since then.
Well I’ve tracked down that the project is awaiting final approval from the Gloucester County Land Use Review team.
Since the property accesses a County Road, the County has a say in the projects full approval before construction can start.
And some added good news is, based on the site plans acquired by 42Freeway, it appears that as part of this Wawa development the traffic signal intersection at Mount Royal Rd will be improved to offer additional dedicated turn lanes.
To be clear, these County approvals aren’t really about “can this even be built”, but more so the County wants to know how the project will access the County roadways so the County team can provide suggestions and requirements on the development, to minimize impacts.
Honestly I don’t think the County approval team is too demanding, but they ask very specific questions related to County road access and movements, and they expect very specific answers.
So in the latest County review of the Mantua Wawa project, the Gloucester County Land Use Review Board has not approved the start of development yet until all of the road access questions are answered.
An interesting twist to this Wawa is it will be on TWO County roads, as they proposal includes an access road to connect to Jackson Road also! The long access road will wrap around a Heritage Dairy Store property.