The Leaf Ave Extension in Bellmawr is expected to start in the next 9 months and will significantly change exit access from Creek Road to Route 42 South, while improving traffic conditions on Creek Road.
This article gives an overview of what the Leaf Avenue Extension entails but also “wraps” two recent videos that I’ve published
- Leaf Ave Extension
- Direct Connection August 12th
Videos at the bottom of the article
The Leaf Avenue Extension project was originally sponsored by NJDOT, but is now in the hands of Camden County who tells me they are in the final detail stages as well as acquiring properties… with hopes to start within the next 6 to 9 months.
Additionally a waterfront park is coming for around the property perimeter, to give the public access the mostly unseen Big Timber Creek (October 2025 article)
Core Issues Accessing Route 42 South From Bellmawr
The area of Creek Road in Bellmawr where it crosses over Route 42 has become a significant traffic bottleneck particularly for local commuters traveling west on Creek Road looking to navigate to 42 South.
As traffic crosses over the Route 42 overpass they must turn left at the traffic signal, and the volume of traffic looking to do that same movement towards Route 42 South (particularly at rush hour) is so significant the cars queuing at the signal will back up significantly and block the entire Creek Road westbound traffic.
This is also compounded by a newer traffic signal added at Edgewood and Creek Roads, which is the main movement for cars coming off of 42 North. Toss a Super Wawa in the middle of it all and it just becomes a very challenging roadway for the local commuters and those passing through.
Another pending issue is the large Bellmawr landfill that is expected to be developed into three distribution warehouses. If those projects were to come to fruition there really isn’t a clear and easy way for trucks and employee vehicles to move in and out of that landfill warehouse area, without adding additional bottlenecks to the existing Creek Road and Harding Avenue intersection. The new project looks to alleviate those situations.
Leaf Ave Extension Bellmawr
The core goal to eliminate the congestion where Creek Road crosses over Route 42 is to relocate the main access road to the west, which will place it about a quarter mile away closer to the area where Missing Moves crosses over Creek Road.
This new roadway will travel in the undeveloped area that sits between the Missing Moves roadway and the raised landfill and head east towards the existing (currently) shorter Leaf Avenue… which is effectively the on-off exit of 42 South.
The current small industrial park that is accessed via Harding, Coolidge and Stanley Avenues will see those three roadways have their endpoints cut off from the Route 42 exit. Lliterally the only people that would be on those three roadways after this project is completed, are the workers or residents needing to access buildings on those three streets.
This is a double-win for reducing traffic challenges on Creek road, because the exit is moved further out of the way to the west, and within the small Industrial Area traffic will be significantly reduced.
NJDOT and Camden County are so positive on this plan that the existing traffic signal at Harding Avenue and Creek Road will be removed… simply because there’ll be so few cars needing to turn down Harding Avenue.
Effectively that signal moves West to connect with the Leaf Avenue Extension. That area of Creek Road will be widened into multiple lanes to support dedicated turn Lanes, and a new traffic signal.
There will also be considerable space for cars to queue up at the signal if necessary.
The other aspect I mentioned was the potential for warehouse development in the Bellmawr landfill, and the concern about how to handle additional car traffic that doesn’t greatly impact traffic movements on Creek Road.
To support this, the Leaf Avenue Extension will have a new traffic signal intersection located within the center of its length that will offer an access point towards the landfill.
This turn-in road towards the landfill is short, but it gives the developer an entry point to extend at a later date.
Direct Connection Update – August 12th
As mentioned, on August 12th I published a new Direct Connection Route 295 road construction update. In that video I start on the street level of the Browning Road Bridge showing the new steel girders that are in place and then I move on to bringing up the Drone and highlighting several areas showing significant development progress.
